Ace broached concerns with getting the County Line Trails area signed by USFS. Having difficulty getting contact with proper people to address getting these signs completed. Scott W and Dan A will both reach out to local connections, and try to establish working relationship with new gal – Lacey(?)

Grand Valley –

See Chapter Report submitted by John H

Kokopelli section of Riverfront Trail will have Grand Opening on Aug 9th. This will complete the Quick read more or view full articleRiverfront Trail from Grand Junction to Loma!!! A few sections remain to be completed between GJ and Palisade.

Motion made and seconded to increase account balance to $1000. Approved.

Coordinator Report:

See Report filed by Tisha

Rides! Each chapter commit to doing at least one write-up per year. Please!

Tisha will re-send template to each chapter.

Encouraging outreach to get folks out on the trails!

Tisha to track funding opportunities on a 3-month rolling cycle, so we maintain visibility to all funding opportunities!

Scott proposed that we alter our financial tracking mechanism and to authorize Tisha to manage. Tisha would maintain daily financials and an outside group would review on quarterly basis, perform annuals tasks (990, etc)

Motion – to engage Dalby Wendland & Company to prepare our 990 (annual tax reporting) to review coordinator daily bookkeeping on a quarterly basis, in exchange for being listed as COPMOBA Partner. Seconded and passed.

2ndMotion – Transfer responsibility from Treasurer’s position to coordinator position for daily and regular bookkeeping duties. Seconded and passed.

Plan is to have records transferred by Aug 1st, meet with each chapter and have transfer and reconciliation complete by Sept 1st.

Side note – review qualifications for “Partner” and “Business Membership”. Stephen to work with Tisha on this project.

Discussion regarding role of “Treasurer”. With motions presented and approved, the day-to-day responsibilities of the Treasurer will be transferred to Coordinator. Treasurer will remain the one responsible for our fiscal responsibility, review monthly financials with coordinator to affirm correctness and work with accounting group on quarterly and annual reporting needs.

Tour de Bloom – Full report to come from Tisha via email

OLD BUSINESS –

Insurance update – Current coverage as reviewed was renewed.

Second company has offered to review and propose alternative coverage that could save group significant funds. Tisha will manage this process and complete by Aug 15th.

Review By-Laws – John and Rod are currently reviewing all by-laws. Proposed changes will be posted to Google Groups by July 31st.

RMHF Grant submission – opportunity for a grant submission. However, deadline is very near and requires significant resources to write. MUT will review and may possibly put forth an application.

Helpful, however clear that CPW still maintains a very Front Range priority.

Quarterly CPW meeting to happen in Grand Junction Oct 25th/26th.

Follow up activities

How do we engage in conversation around generating fund sources for non-motorized trails? Trailhead fees, ‘green’ sticker program concept, all ideas welcome.

CPW Commission Mtg – meeting in Crested Butte – July 10th. Funding model to be principle topic of discussion. Scott W will attend, and board agreed that Scott should inform CPW that COPMOBA will support any reasonable, practical plan to create a recreation-specific tax and/or user fee concept, with purpose to help fund trail planning and construction, provided CPW develops a fair and transparent method for tracking it.

RAT – assist with conversation with USFS regarding Dallas Trail. Put pressure on local USFS to at least make a go/no go decision for maintenance/re-route requests.

WETA – assistance with Picket Trail completion. Grant funding is available for completion, but BLM does not respond to requests for engagement.

DAMB – assistance with getting bodies on the ground to assist with trail work on current projects. Also, help getting a response to signage request at County Line Trails (as previously mentioned by Ace)

MUT – paying to get all our clearances completed. Renata will provide a $$ number.

GVC – too many irons in the fire to decide on a specific project.

Palisade Plunge update

Funding opportunity open – deadline by Aug 1st. Town of Palisade may not be able to get this completed. Final EA has been approved with release within next 30 days.

County Recreation Trails Master Plan due by end of May. Pretty comprehensive, with most trails desired included. Sven will post Plan to our Board site.

Outdoor Heritage Days (June 2nd) – cool event for publicity.

Concerns around unofficial trail building at Jumbo Mtn (Paonia), with many new trails that are not part of “official inventory”. BLM-UFO not pleased and expressing displeasure and all trails are in jeopardy.

Cultural survey for Sarledge (14 miles of new multi-use single-track to connect Sarlaac and The Edge) starts next week. Hopeful NEPA approval in Aug.

April 28th – GVC event (get more info! – John Howe to add)

GJ Off-Road – May 19th-21st

ColoRowdies – outreach to ride and do trail work on Lunch Loops – Apr 14th

Riverfront Trail single-track – final section is under construction.

Crane Lake work day at end of June

Mack Ridge completion hopeful for Oct/Nov.

Montrose –

Stoke Night in March was great. Raised over $4K!!

Cerro Summit Trail Celebration – June 2nd DMEA has offered to help create an event to raise awareness of outdoor recreation and mountain biking in the area.

Lengthy discussion about how to help CPW fund all access to open spaces, regarding the increase of non-motorized users and potential impacts on declining use of traditional CPW constituents. CPW obviously struggling with funding for projects and variable revenues in the future.

Ridgway –

Focus this year on some trail maintenance funding for Dallas Trail

Some leftover funds from original CPW grant for connector trails for BLM to State Park trails. State Park trails are not scheduled to be built as planned.

RAT Fest June 9th will focus on the race aspect this year.

WETA –

Woo Hoo, got to build trail all winter!!!

UFO meeting on April 17th to further address maintenance on existing trails

Clark distributed all chapter updates to each chapter. Each chapter should touch base with Clark separately on individual concerns.

Coordinator Report:

See Report

Tour de Bloom – Full as of today!! 8 new members.

Jerseys available for sale – look awesome!

Financials – reaching out to chapter chairs on numbers

Grant Database – done!!

Sales for Trails – on-going efforts to get activated with more folks who want to participate. We need more partners!

Membership Drive – should have final report in next 3 to 4 weeks

Branding / Merchandise – working with Chris M and Stephen on final selections.

OLD BUSINESS –

BLM MOU – Scott to review and send to Board by May 8th.

Insurance update – currently under an extension to complete updates to policy.

Change in policy to include full scale “completed operations coverage” as COPMOBA has expanded across the Western Slope, the need to have full coverage for all chapters.

Scott and John to follow up this week with agent for conclusion by Thursday, for Board vote by EOW

Review By-Laws – John H and Rod to review and circulate to Board by May 8th.

Board Membership: (both will be added to Google Groups by Tisha)

WETA: John B. Stewart – Moved, seconded and approved

DAMB: Thaddeus Smith – Moved, seconded and approved

GMUG – scoping period is open for comments, closes on May 2nd

Outdoor Alliance is currently undergoing a study on economic impact, GIS overlays of outdoor activities to overlay how activities/outdoor rec drive dollars to local communities.

CPW grant follow-up – we did not procure funding for either planning or construction projects in this cycle. Scott has met with CPW directly to express our views on trails development and the current vacuum on the evaluation process and CPW is working to improve that. Lack of understanding of the Western Slope is a concern shared by CPW and there is hope to host a visit (hopefully this fall) to review our multi-chapter approach and all the issues facing the Western Slope.

Finances for each chapter - $1000 for each chapter to be dispersed for general use + $1400 for an “event kit”. Tisha spear-heading acquiring tent, table banners, etc for event kit.

NEW BUSINESS –

Telluride Trails Conference report – concern that came out of conference is the issue of multiple agencies overlapping the lands of the Western Slope, all with varied and differing issues. Efforts underway to coordinate a meeting with multiple channels to consolidate efforts.

Gunnison Public Lands Initiative – concerns with expanding wilderness boundaries and on-going discussion to where those boundaries will eventually be. Anticipated decision in 6-12 months. On-going conversations with all groups including folks from CB to Carbondale to Paonia.

Committee OK as submitted – moved, seconded and approved unanimously.

Grand Valley –

No additions to report as submitted

Committee approved as presented

Montrose –

Additions – working to expand Buzzard Gulch with additional 7.5 miles of proposed trail – some converting current double-track to single-track, some new Quick read more or view full articletrail including Spring Creek connectors. Much of proposed trails are part of original 2010 plan. Garry Baker coordinated efforts for MUT

Committee approved as proposed.

Ridgway –

No additions to submitted report

Current committee to continue as presented

WETA –

Additions to report – Add Nucla connectors to Paradox trail to the MOU

Current committee members approved as submitted

Treasurer Report:

All Chapters report financials are OK as presented.

All Chapter chairs to coordinate with Coordinator by Feb 28th to reconcile any discrepancies.

Coordinator Report:

See Report

Outreach is growing, with Facebook likes up and individual membership up

Biz membership is flat – need to put some effort into getting new biz members

Newsletter – NEED to get “Rides of the Month” from the chapters

CO Gives Day – donations up this year!

Reminder – for October meeting, we need to kick off efforts on kicking off 2018 efforts for CO Gives Day

Tour de Bloom – registration is open. Tisha will confirm site is working properly.

Financials – working with Clark to reconcile all records and streamline process going forward

Grant Database – will distribute to board to confirm accuracy. Each chapter needs to review. Please “reply all” on response, so we all have visibility and can add any further updates/comments on any grants that might cross chapter boundaries.

Sales for Trails – on-going efforts to get activated with more folks who want to participate. We need more partners!

Membership growth – 133 new members in 2017, 69 in last quarter. Bulk of those came from the Escalante Triangle outreach day.

Seasonal Kick-Off events – each chapter should do at least one big public event. The Escalante Triangle event was well attended and generated a lot of enthusiasm and was a great opportunity to spread the good word of what COPMOBA does for trails on the Western Slope. We should do more events

OLD BUSINESS –

Treasurer – Coordinator Financial Recordkeeping Improvements

Tisha to meet with Clark on Feb 2nd to continue getting financials updated and streamlined. To meet with all chapter chairs by Feb 28th to confirm all numbers are accurate and move forward.

Coordinator Tasks –

See report

Also note that Tisha is working on the website update

Reviewing similar organizations websites for ideas.

Hope to have initial re-design up in beta format for board review by March 1st

Switch our payment processing from ProPay to PayPal

ACTION – Moved to convert our payment processing partner from ProPay to PayPal. Second and passed unanimously

We should add a “Trails Listing” for each chapter, with a brief description, length, difficulty and any seasonal closures.

Discussion ensued about adding a live link to each description, with an Avenza map of the ride.

Also, possibility of creating a regional map, with rides identified by location and live link to click on the ride.

Tisha will investigate this concepts as part of website update.

Membership – Tisha proposes a “Membership Drive” for April.

5 weeks in duration, with each chapter being highlighted a different week.

Renew or join and enter to win cool stuff – hats, shirts, etc

Discussion of doing “Trail Kick-Off” events during the membership drive

REI has reached out to volunteer to join us for some events, either at trailheads or in-store opportunities. Would like to have COPMOBA be present in store for some events during the membership drive as well as partner on efforts to get folks out to the trails.

We should focus on question of re-brand (logo, etc) in order to get ready to order new merchandise for the season (see notes later)

Additional efforts to pursue other funding opportunities.

Considering recent less than positive responses from CPW, what other potential sources of funding can we approach to secure money for our on-going efforts.

Discussed that we should get Tisha business cards to assist with her outreach efforts. Decided that that should happen and Tisha will get them made up!

CPW Non-Motorized Trail Grant Applications

2 grant opportunities pursued – 1 for construction and 1 for planning

Construction grant would be applied to efforts in Loma and for the two bridges in Montrose. All appears proceeding well.

Late left turn from CPW alerting us that these two proposals appeared too disparate and we should focus on only one. After a quick review by our board, it was determined that the Escalante Triangle option was further along and had more broad based support, and Fremont was dropped from our proposal.

John Howe attended the CPW review in Denver and reports significant push back from CPW on locations of our projects and questions around how we could possibly get all these proposals completed. It appears there is a lack of understanding that we are actually 5 chapters, with lots of folks engaged, lots of boots on the ground and a long history of getting trail projects accomplished.

Scott W will reach out to CPW to discuss priorities, scoring and our individual applications and to highlight that we have letters of support from Fruita, Grand Junction, Mesa Cty, Palisade among others in support of our projects.

Side conversation about the need to generate an organized packet of info to help explain the financial and health benefits of our projects to all folks on the Western Slope. We have multiple testimonials from local businesses, particularly the hospitals, that one of the reasons they can even recruit employees is because of the amazing outdoor recreational opportunities available and especially access to trail networks.

This latest process has felt more contentious than prior years and that we are fighting a lack of understanding from the Front Range about the appeal of the Western Slope and also the need on our part for financial assistance to get these projects rolling.

COPMOBA – BLM MOU update

Thanks to all for commentary and Scott will review our comments and get edited version back to chapters by Feb 1st. Each chapter chair should also weigh in by Feb 1st with any updates/edits that pertain their chapter.

Include all 2018 projects, but nothing new. Only prior discussed projects, so no new surprises. BLM is overwhelmed with projects and we need to simplify our communications in order to better facilitate progress.

Final MOU to be submitted to BLM first week of February

Insurance –

Chapter chairs to provide USFS & BLM contacts to Scott W by Feb 1st, and Scott will reach out on volunteer agreements with those agencies and coordinate efforts to confirm understanding of coverages for volunteers

Pump Tracks – exact coverage to be determined by the overall coverage. Discussion ensued on potential cost increases as well as working with each community on exact needs for coverage

Risk Mgmnt – we need to review existing templates and confirm workable for current and future plans

NEW BUSINESS –
Board Membership:

Trisha Oakland (RAT) resignation accepted

Annual Confirmation of existing board members

Review current board membership and meeting attendance

All current board members in attendance agree to continue.

Motion made that all current member continue, seconded and approved unanimously.

Collection of information on economic impact of outdoor recreation access, including testimonials from municipalities, local businesses, etc about health benefits to employees and the attraction of living in places with access to activities.

Planned Giving

Tour de Bloom –

Ramping up for 2018 – May 17th to 20th event dates. Registration is open.

MUT submitted comments highlighting the lack of crowds and opportunity to spread users out over a greater area. Combined comments with equestrian groups requesting more loop trail options for non-motorized trails.

Scott urges all chapters to continue to review all updates and comment as necessary.

GOCO – support of re-authorization.

COPMOBA will submit letter to be listed as supporter of keeping GOCO functional and funded, extending it beyond July 1, 2024

Telluride Trails Conference –

Opportunity to advocate for further trail development in West End. Telluride Foundation seeking to expand scope into wider regional effort around trails and engage Trail Mix group from Moab to present learnings from Moab experience.

Conference Date – Feb 20th, Placerville School House

MOU – The Nature Connection –

Received a GOCO grant to assist with getting kids outdoors, particularly out on trails. The Nature Connection has proposed a MOU with COPMOBA to assist with trail development for 7 miles of new trail. New trail to be built on local school North Fork Recreation District and BLM land. Liability insurance needs coverage for work on the non-school related properties, should be sorted out by mid-February. COPMOBA can only participate in work only on BLM land, through our volunteer agreement.

Discussion about details of MOU. As pertains to COPMOBA, they request an organization representative at work days, with tools training and skilled leadership on trail building, however only on BLM land. Sven to follow up on next steps.

Organizational Branding –

Discussion about logo and name.

COPMOBA word itself needs to be included on all messaging

We need to do a better job collectively of speaking to COPMOBA

Motion – allocate $1400 per chapter for a tent, table topper, cash box, etc to create a consistent look for all chapters at events

Second and approved.

Tisha will present COPMOBA logo update options by Feb 20th.

Including merchandise update ideas.

Each Chapter to present updated chapter logo options by Feb 20th.

Election of Officers –

Current officers:

President – Scott Winans

Vice-President – Chris Muhr

Secretary – Rod Fitzhugh

Treasurer – Clark Rieves

Elected for 2018

President – Scott Winans

Vice-Pres – Chris Muhr

Secretary – Stephen Barnes

Treasurer – Clark Rieves

Moved and seconded, approved unanimously

Board Member Bios – need to be updated (Tisha to remind us when we forget to complete!)

Open Floor –

Escalante Triangle – meeting in November with COPMOBA, SSST and BLM to review outline of project and standards that need to be followed for the concept plan. BLM requested additional material before final approval that may delay start of project. SSST revised language to meet new standard requested and COPMOBA will re-submit within next week.

E-Bikes – with the incredible access available in West End, we should recommend that E-Bike riders head to the West End and have a great time!

Palisade Plunge – application for grants on the horizon with El Palmar and Gates Family Foundation. Moved to allow to pursue grant opportunities with above foundations for funding on behalf of Plunge project. Seconded and passed.

The President requested comment, changes or additions to the minutes from the July 10, 2017 Board meeting. John Howe requested the date on said minutes be changed to July 10, 2017, the actual date of the meeting. Nobody else had any comment and, upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously to approve said minutes with the date change noted.

The President noted that all chapters had submitted detailed, written chapter reports and asked each chapter chair to comment about Quick read more or view full articleany important changes or additions to said reports. Rodney Fitzhugh mentioned several minor, stylistic changes to the RAT report. No other changes or additions were noted and copies of all chapter reports, including the revised RAT report, are attached hereto.

The President noted that the Treasure was not present but had submitted written reports, including P&L for 2017 to date, Balance Sheet for 2017 to date, local fund balances for each chapter and Federal Financial Report concerning CPW grant funds received by the Company. The reports are attached hereto. The President noted that several Board Members had previously expressed having difficulty reconciling local financial records with the Treasurer’s reports. A discussion ensued about the form of reports and the communications among Treasurer and the various chapter chairpersons. The coordinator explained that she has a lot of experience with book keeping and financial record keeping and suggested that she work with the Treasure to develop a more uniform method of creating, recording and sharing financial information across the whole Company. The Coordinator and the Treasure will work together toward that end and make recommendations to the Board no later than November 1, 2017. The coordinator again requested that the chapters copy her on all financial documents and all email sent to the Treasurer.

The President noted that the Coordinator had prepared a written report, which is attached hereto. He asked the Coordinator to elaborate. She did so as follows:

She needs feedback on direction and priorities.

She has explored various websites for other non-profits and has spoken to Mark at Thin Air (the developer who created our website). Mark wants to continue providing quality, low-cost website resources to the Company. The coordinator recommends we leave the website with Mark and update or upgrade various features. She asked for additional video and photography from the various chapters.

She wants to continue producing the newsletter on a monthly basis. People respond to pictures and maps, so she wants more. She wants each chapter to develop two feature stories each year about favorite bike rides. John Howe said he’d have a feature about Hawkeye no later than November 1st. The President requested that each chapter produce two feature stories and submit them to the Coordinator no later than November 1, 2017.

She wants copied on ALL intra-chapter and inter-chapter email.

Steven Barnes noted that Tour De Bloom had produced big income again last year for the Company and asked whether plans looked good again for 2008. Rodney Fitzhugh reported that he has spoken frequently with ride organizers Bryce Palo, Whit Smith and Jim Ellis, all of whom have indicated their desire and intent to continue producing and leading the event. Rodney also advised the Board that, according to Whit Smith, the lead/speed rider for 2017 is excited to repeat the effort in 2018.

OLD BUSINESS

John Howe reported that the Finance Committee has not met since forming after the last Board meeting. He stated he would call a meeting immediately after the Coordinator and Treasure report to the Company about any recommended changes to financial record generation and sharing.

John then reported in detail about his review of liability issues and insurance questions affecting the company, as follows:

Federal and State statutes protect volunteers on work projects from liability to third parties. State trail grant funding law protects volunteers and non-profits organizations from third party liability claims arising from projects funded by State administered grant funds.

The Company has a Commercial General Liability insurance policy. The policy insures against liability of the Company, its officers, directors, employees, volunteers and agents (all referred to collectively in this report as the Company) for damages to property and personal injury allegedly resulting from accidents attributable to negligence of the Company. The policy covers for accidents arising from active negligence of the Company and for accidents arising from conditions relating to the Company’s completed operations. The Company’s compelted operations consist primarily of trails the Company builds, repairs or maintains.

The policy excludes a number of specific classes of injury and damage from coverage, as follows:

1. Events, contests, exhibitions sponsored by the Company. Examples include RAT Race and Tour De Bloom. Any injuries or damages occurring during such an event will not be covered.
2. The policy provides no separate coverage (apart from the general liability coverage) for med-pay for bodily injury caused either by active negligence or completed operations.
3. The policy will not cover for liability assumed by the company as a result of a contract with a third party, unless the Company made the contract before the date of the injury. Basically, this means the carrier will not pay to defend the company against suits for damages brought against a person or entity whom the company has agreed to indemnify, unless the agreement to indemnify arose before the injury.
4. The policy does not cover for injuries/damages resulting from stunts or extreme activity; however, there is no generally accepted definition of that term. The board discussed whether this would exclude injuries to any casual rider suffered while riding company trails. However, Rod has previously had direct, written communications with the agent and underwriter confirming that injury to standard trail users is covered.

John suggests we tell our agent/carrier what coverage we want and then put the onus on them to provide that specific coverage, so that if we do ever get denied by the carrier, we can establish a written record of having relied on them to provide specific coverage.

The CGL coverage does provide supplemental payments, including defense costs; so any legal fees or related costs incurred in defense of a claim are paid outside the policy limits stated in the policy declarations.

The BLM federal agency volunteer agreements provide coverage for injury to our volunteer workers on a BLM project. Scott suggests we determine whether we have or can create similar arrangements with the FS. Dan and Kris Cox and Bill Harris should know, and someone should follow up with them.

John reported that we do have some towns committed to indemnify us to the extent permitted by law for liability arising from injuries suffered on pump tracks built or maintained by the company within those towns. However, John’s investigation suggests the “extent permitted by law” probably leaves us with very little, if any, protection. We should look at procuring riders for all our pump tracks, similar to the one procured for the pump track in Ridgway.

A discussion ensured concerning the need for a company policy establishing standard protocol in the event of accident, injury, claim, or the like on our volunteer projects and events; we need a risk management/assessment plan; some board members speculated that IMBA may have templates or other resources designed to address this issue.

John will meet with the carrier after getting the old correspondence concerning completed operations coverage from Rod; then John will produce a checklist of action needed to plug holes where we may have exposure to liability. As some point we should convene a risk management committee. John will try to produce an update in January at the annual Board Retreat, with a goal of producing a definite plan before policy renewal date in March. John will try to meet with Home Loan by November 1st. John will produce an outline for that meeting a week in advance. We also will work to get some definite feedback before March 1, 2018 from FS about possible volunteer agreements and the extent of any liability protection for volunteer trail crews.

A discussion ensued concerning Coordinator tasks and priorities. The coordinator she should focus some energy on document organization, website update, merchandising-branding-logo-etc…, membership drive and maintenance, chapter involvement-meetings-events and grant involvement: she wants to search for grants that may help us and work them up. She will circulate a list of such grants. Scott suggested that more time might got to determining how best to assist with CPW grant activities, and to assistance with developing the sales for trails program. Tisha reported having done some local information gathering chapter by chapter on sales for trails. Other board members suggested the coordinator’s efforts could help stream line and standardize financial records throughout the various chapers. Some felt emphasis should go to the newsletter. Paul would like to see Tisha become the company’s “public face.”

Rod indicated that RAT could use help with permitting on the RAT Race, but Ed reported that, with one event under his belt, he feels he has a pretty solid handle on the process and should be able to manage it in 2018. However, several memgers would like to see Tisha involved in all the planning meetings for RAT Race to familiarize herself with the process, so we can possibly stage other, similar events at other venues in the future.

After a lengthy discussion of all these topics, the board created a rough priority list for the coordinator, as follows: finance, grant data base, document retention and organization, sales for trails, membership outreach and expansion of membership base.

NEW BUSINESS

CPW

The company will seek both planning and construction grant money for DAMB, MUT and GV. Various members indicated that, given commitments so far, we will not likely need general fudn money for matching funds. A discussion followed about the need to explore alternative funding sources to CPW for future trail construction and planning projects continue funding trails. the Board reiterated the need to begin exploring the availability and extent of government, businesse, large donor, regional charitable foundation and other community funding resources.

BLM MOU

BLM wants a chapter priority list from each chapter as an addendum to a company-wide MOU about for BLM/COPMOBA cooperation.

MT BIKE SUMMIT – FT. COLLINS – OCTOBER 20-22

On motion duly made and seconded it was resolved that the company shall will pay for the cost of registration for one attendee from each company chapter. The Board discussed the extent to which attendees should attempt to express a company policy concerning bikes in wilderness and ebikes. Scott will circulate the company statement on wilderness and the “company line” on these subjects for the Summit will be that, we “endorse and support current agency policy” on all such issues.

OTHER BUSINESS

Some general discussion followed concerning the status of the GMUG Forest Plan Revision,

The board considered a request from DAMB that the company help fund the Escalante Triangle Trail Kickoff Meeting, the point of which is to publicize and organize support for the project. On motion made and seconded, the Board unanimously resolved to provide up to $400.00 from the general fund for this purpose.

General, brief, inconclusive discussion followed concerning electronic access to the company bank statement for chapter chairs, information recently produced by a CMU study of Mt. Bike impact on local economic activity, possible purchase of land for a section of the Palisade Plunge Trail.

After citation of appropriate statory authority, the Board Entered executive session to discuss the status and effect on the company of legal procedings agains a member of one of the local committees. Following discussion in such executive session, the board agreed by consensus that Edward Hines would ask the committee member in question to take a leave of absence pending resolution of the legal issues.

Scott asked Paul to provide a written description of the relationship between WETA and COPMOBA. Paul Agreed.

Comments are subject to administrator approval before becoming publicly visible.

July 10, 2017 Board Meeting Minutes

August 9, 2017

COPMOBA BOARD Meeting Minutes 7-10-17

President Scott Winans called the meeting to order and called the roll. Present were the President and board members Rodney Fitzhugh, Renata Raziano, Sven Edstrom, Gary Baker, John Howe, Chris Muhr, Edward Hines, Dan Antonelli and Paul Koski. Also present were Katie Sapp, Marty Kauzlarich, Tish McCombs, Past President Bill Harris and Jim Maggio. Absent were board members Stephen Barnes, Clark Rieves and Trish Oakland.

Finding a quorum present, the President called the meeting to order and requested comments on the minutes from the April 17, 2017 Board meeting. John Howe stated that the minutes should reflect that the GV chapter contributed 7000 to a contractor to perform maintenance on the Bike Park at the Tabeguache Trail Head west of Grand Junction. Following motion made and duly seconded, the Board voted to approve the minutes from the 4/17/17 board meeting, with the Quick read more or view full articleamendment noted.

Annual RODent Award

The president presented the RAT Chapter’s Annual RODent Award to Rodney Fitzhugh in recognition of his longtime service on the RAT Chapter steering committee.

Chapter Reports

The president noted that all chapter chairpersons except Edward Hines from the RAT Chapter had previously submitted written chapter reports and urged each board member to read the reports. The president then asked each Chapter Chairperson whether any of them had any additional comments or information further to the written reports previously submitted. Several of the Chapter chairpersons read from their written reports. Renata Raziano from the MUT Chapter noted the recent name change from Uncompahgre Chapter to Montrose Uncompahgre Trails (MUT). The president then noted that all chapters must include the COPMOBA logo in all public communications and advertising, including maps. He asked that all proposed maps be submitted to the Board for discussion and approval. The president also request a report from MUT on what worked and what did not work at the MUT fundraiser during the Ride the Rockies event in Montrose.

Chapter reports from the MUT Chapter, the GVC Chapter the DAMB Chapter and the West End Chapter are appended hereto.

The president also requested a presentation from the GV Chapter on their continuing partnership efforts with BLM, which was mentioned in the GV chapter report.

Rodney Fitzhugh noted that the RAT Chapter had not submitted a written report and briefly summarized ongoing activities in Ouray County, as follows:

RAT Fest generated approximately $6000.00 in net income with the precise amount undetermined until deposits from Red Podium can be tracked and accurately verified. Almost 100 racers participated and in general all feed-back was positive, with only a couple racers complaining that the pace set by the Town Marshall for the neutral start was too fast.

RAT has been working with BLM and SSST to create another new trail in the general area of Big Cheese to provide an alternative descent to the Road 10 parking area. CPW 2017 grant funds will be reallocated from State Park connector trail construction because State Park appears unlikely to complete the needed administrative process before the 2017 CPW deadline.

RAT will seek planning grant funds from CPW in 2018 to create detailed mapping to generate a proposal for new trail construction and major reroute work on and near the east 1/3 of the Dallas Trail. RAT has submitted a summary of the proposal to the Board and Amy Sharp. Rat will need to contact CPW about wildlife concerns before Amy submits the grant application. RAT has done a lot of research through County Records to determine that public access is available to reroute the highly erosive switch back section from County Road 17 to the intersection of Dallas Trail and Corbett Trail. Based on said research, RAT expects we will need support from Ouray County, USFS, BLM and certain private property owners in Ouray County in order to accomplish the preferred alternate for one of the proposed reroutes at the far east end of Dallas trail. Need to seek pre-approval from CPW on this program

The president requested a summary from RAT for concerning planning, staging and wrap up of the RAT RACE event, e.g., what worked and did not work. Edward Hines agreed to provide that.

Edward explained race registration through Red Podium and noted that next year RAT may try a different alternative offering race timing technology packaged with the registration portal.

Renata and Rodney noted that merchandise sales are up for both RAT and MUT.

Treasurer Report

The treasure did not attend. The president requested that all chapter chairpersons review financial report prepared by the treasurer for this meeting, compare them to local records for consistence and contact the treasurer about any discrepancies. Rod noted long-standing discrepancies between Treasure numbers and RAT local fund numbers and indicated he will continue efforts to reconcile.

The president noted that the Finance Committee formed at the last meeting has not met as agreed and requested that the treasurer set a meeting within 30 days. John Howe agrees to help get that scheduled.

Coordinator Report

Tish McCormack reported: She has located the old report template. Total present membership is 318; she sends out monthly renewal reminders via mail and email; emailed to all lapsed members (260) and got 23 renewals, mostly paying online; the Facebook page has 1419 likes; she has met with every chapter steering committee or with each local chapter chair or has attended a chapter event for each chapter; TDB is almost wrapped up – all auction items have been invoiced; has worked on several chapter specific initiatives, such as MUT maps, MUT rebranding, RAT Fest and Donor sponsored pump station at Ouray County Rd. 10 trail head, DAMB REI grant and related press releases and RFP’s; she focusing now on Facebook, sales for trails; she would like more communications on a regular basis from the chapters, copy her on all email, no amount of email is too much; she is looking for some direction on Board expectations A discussion ensued concerning the monthly newsletter.

The president asked that all chapters copy the coordinator on all communications.

The president advised that he will consolidate and circulate suggestions for coordinator priorities in the near future. He will initiate a coordinator priority discussion on the google group within the next 2 weeks; Tish has compiled and consolidated all prior discussions on the topic.

Old Business

Liability Coverage

John Howe had volunteered to review the extent of liability coverage and the enforceability of indemnity agreements with various municipalities, but has not completed that. He doesn’t yet have the current insurance policies; He will complete that review and summary before the next board meeting.

BLM MOU: The GJ BLM office did not get UFO support for an organization-wide MOU with COPMOBA. UFO has told several chapter chairs they want separate MOU’s for each chapter. The president will, within 2 weeks, seek a definite statement from BLM on whether they will produce a unified MOU for COPMOBA.

New Business

REI Grant
Tish reported that we did receive the money from REI for use on Escalante/Dominguez Triangle trail planning. She produced and distributed an RFP seeking estimates on the what we can actually get in the way of useful for 25-30 miles of trail with the $5000.00; and the additional cost for any suggested additions. BLM will try to match the REI money.
Sven reported that DAMB picked this area because it has an RMP and TMP in place and it’s designated as a Rec Management Area in the UFO RMP Draft. It is the area within the DAMB bailiwick most suitable for trail development at the moment.
Bill Harris suggested that DAMB should seek planning assistance with something like the “scope of work,” planning obtained by the Montrose Chapter in 2010 for the RAT trail system.

Discussion ensued concerning ‘ground proving a trail.’

CPW Planning/Construction Grant

1. Contracts

A discussion took place concerning 2017 construction/maintenance grant applications in general. Following discussion, motion was made and seconded concerning both planning and construction/maintenance grant applications, as follows: that all such applications submitted in 2017 for CPW grants shall be contracted by the Company for preparation by Sparrow Trails, that all fees for grant preparation shall be paid from the General Fund and that all such contracts with Sparrow shall be contingent upon the inclusion in the grant application of a request for administrative funding to COPMOBA of 5% of the total of any grant ultimately awarded. The motion carried unanimously.

2. Planning

The president noted that we can get a discount from the standard $3500.00 to $3000.00 for preparation of a grant application by contracting Amy Sharp for the grant applications before August 1st.
a. RAT seeks a planning grant for Dallas Trail Corridor new trail construction and reroutes and needs $20,000.00, to prepare detailed gps mapping for 20 miles of trail. Rod Fitzhugh noted that Rat needs to seek preliminary input from CPW wildlife specialists before submitting a grant application. Rod advised that RAT has had very substantial preliminary discussions with the Forest Service about this concept – FS actually has suggested that RAT work up a plan for new and re-purposed or rerouted trails along and near the Dallas Trail, and has specifically requested a detailed plan with maps for proposed trials. They want to walk the proposed lines themselves. RAT has also researched public records and verified the existence of alternative, public access to the existing, eroded switchback descent from Moonshine Park to County Road 17. RAT has determined that, even with the clear, legal alternate access, a re-route via this such access will require cooperation from BLM, FS, Ouray County, CPW and a local private subdivision.
b. GV – seeks likely less than $50,000.00 for Fremont Trail System planning. John Howe will try to refine the amount needed (probably down) on a per mile basis and seek vetting of the concept from CPW wildlife personnel before seeking a grant. The GV folks have six traces and 2 ground proofed; existing BLM planning definitely allows for this kind of activity, although we may have some cultural and floral issues; BLM planning is not done, however; they are aware of the concept have done no specific planning and have received no specific proposal.
c. DAMB – seeks further funding for the Escalante/Dominguez project, but do not have enough information to state a definite amount. DAMB believes Delta County will have matching money for this grant.

d. West End – No planning grant funds needed

e. MUT – No planning grant funds needed

f. After a detailed discussion, it was agreed that Rod Fitzhugh will contact Amy Sharp about preparation of a unified application for CPW planning grant funds for the RAT, DAMB and GV proposals. Rod, John and Sven will serve as Chapter contacts for RAT, GV and DAMB, respectively, through whom Amy will communicate with each chapter concerning the process and needed information. Rod will ask Amy to develop a contract proposal. The coordinator and president request that the coordinator receive copies of all communications related to this application.

3. Construction/Maintenance

a. DAMB seeks funding of an unknown amount for maintenance and enhancement of existing trails on Jumbo Mountain. All trails in question have been confirmed as part of the BLM existing trail inventory and no NEPA process is needed.

b. MUT seeks funding for 2 bridges in the Spring Creek system. MUT estimates a cost of possibly $50,000.00 for both, but has no project-specific estimates. BLM supports this plan and will not require any NEPA process.

c. GV seeks funding to complete Mack Ridge trails. GV needs 56K. That is a hard number and the project is fully approved and shovel-ready with a favorable NEPA record decision on the books.

d. DAMB – Sven reported that Jumbo trails are posted on MTB project with inaccurate lines leading to private land and trespass issues; use will increase on Jumbo; existing bridges need fixed; other sections of trail are not sustainable and serious erosion continues; a more detailed inventory is needed; UFO supports and wants the maintenance grant app; Amy inventoried the trails all show on the existing inventory so no EA needed. BLM has inventoried much of this and will approve maintenance on any trails in their agreed inventory. BLM also wants a kiosk. However, Amy says our application will score better with all construction or all maintenance.

e. A discussion ensued concerning the potential for negative grant scoring on a unified application for all three projects if they are not all either new construction or maintenance. Various board members believe, based on discussions with Amy Sharp and others that the application could get rejected due to mixed purposes. MUT and GV projects are basically ready to go and involve new construction, no maintenance. DAMB is all maintenance.

Scott propose that we ask Amy to seek funding with a unified grant application for all three projects, but rely on Amy to determine whether any weak component should be dropped. John made a motion on that suggestion, which was seconded and passed unanimously.

Rod will transmit this basic plan to Amy. Contact people for Amy concerning the construction/maintenance grant application will be John, Sven and Renata. Scott requested that he and Tish get copied on all relevant communications

Paul mentioned work needed basically to reclaim Picket Trail. Dan noted that trail already appears on the BLM map so we just need construction/maintenance funding to reclaim it Paul. A discussion ensued concerning the trail length (1/2 mile) and the possibility of reclaiming the line with a volunteer effort. The board concluded by consensus that we needn’t seek CPW funds for that project.

Palisade Plunge

30 mile + project with GPS on 20; contracted with outside firm to do NEPA with BLM as lead on it

GMUG FOREST PLAN REVISION

Need volunteers from each local chapter at each FS meeting starting August 1 at the 4H center in Ridgway. Ed and Rod will attend that meeting.

Dan noted: in 2002 a lot of Mt. Bike issues got very little consideration in revisions to the plan; FS scores each trail for user type; bikes did not get scored on lots of trails so we want FS to review all that and consider the explosion of recreational use, and bikes in particular, in GMUG over the past 15 years. Many old trails should open to bikes.

Rod will share Brian’s Hoefling (RAT committee person) letter concerning bikes and recreation use issues to the Board for possible revision and signature by the president, and transmittal to forest service as an initial COPMOBA position on the Plan Revision Process.

Chris Muhr:

Many OI Retailers consider GMUG a good test case for how national, FS Rec planning will proceed in the future. Retailers clearly want FS to plan for and promote more rec use on forest service lands. So do we. The national OIA has assigned people to focus industry influence on GMUG planners to make sure non-motorized rec gets full consideration. OIA sees the GMUG as an ideal public rec resource due to the combination of resources available and their proximity to population centers.

In a related development, Chris also has a meeting in Denver with the COLO Tourism office to push his Colorado Adrenaline Trail concept.

Dan notes that we need all the help we can get as we are competing in the Revision Plan Process with many fierce wilderness advocates

MISCELLANEOUS

RIDE!! Sven reported plans for a ride July 23d to scout Raggeds Trail in cooperation with Paonia and Gunnison trail advocates; GMUG FS trail no. 820. Riders will shuttle from the Paonia Reservoir Dam. Sven will forward specifics about shuttle and time.

IMBA renewal due – The board had a brief discussion about maintaining affiliation with IMBA. Various people noted the need for a national voice on MTB issues and that IMBA affiliation has produced valuable benefits for the Company over the years. The cost has been $500 per year in the past. A motion to renew the affiliation, maintaining the same status as in previous years, was duly made, seconded and carried unanimously. The Coordinator will complete the renewal.

Katie Sapp was invited to join the board but declined.

The Board will next meet in Nucla on October 9th, 6:00pm, likely at the Naturita Library. Paul will provide more details after he makes needed arrangements.

Comments are subject to administrator approval before becoming publicly visible.

April 10, 2017 Board Meeting Minutes

August 9, 2017

COPMOBA BOARD Meeting Minutes 4-10-17

President Scott Winans called the meeting to order and called the roll. Present were the President and board members Rodney Fitzhugh, Renata Raziano, Sven Edstrom, Clark Rieves, John Howe, Dan Antonelli and Paul Koski. Also present were Kadie Sapp, Marty Kauzlarich and Traci McCurdy. Not present were board members Stephen Barnes, Chris Muhr, Trisha Oakland and Edward Hines.

Finding a quorum present, the President called for comments on the minutes from the January 17, 2017 Board meeting. There were no comments and, following motion made and seconded, the minutes were approved by unanimous vote.

Clark Rieves stated that he had missed the last previous meeting and had not been re-elected as treasurer. The president nominated Clark for treasurer and his appointment was approved without discussion by unanimous vote.

Chapter Reports

The President then asked each Chapter Chairperson whether Quick read more or view full articleany of them had any additional comments or information further to the written reports previously submitted. Chapter reports from the Uncompahgre Chapter, the RAT Chapter, the DAMB Chapter and the West End Chapter are appended hereto. John Howe noted that the Grand Valley Chapter had not submitted a written report and briefly summarized ongoing activities in the Grand Valley, as follows:

The new Hawkeye Trail will open near the Mack Ridge Parking Lot during the Fruita Fat Tire Festival, the last Friday in April.

The GV chapter has worked on maintenance and improvements to the bike park at the Lunch Loop parking lot, and that work will continue until complete

Rodney Fitzhugh sought input from the Board concerning the RAT report about resistance from federal land managers to new trail construction, noting that both BLM and USFS have discouraged any consideration of new trails in Ouray County due to ongoing pressure from CPW. The president agreed to resume efforts to organize region-wide meeting of user groups directed to the issue, with a view toward bringing pressure to bear on CPW at the state level.

Treasurer Report

The treasurer asked whether the company policy of transferring $1000.00 per chapter per year from the general fund remained in effect. A brief discussion and reference to prior minutes confirmed that each chapter should receive a $1000.00 transfer each year on or about February 2nd.

The treasurer then referenced the financial reports circulated earlier to the Board members via email (copies attached). He noted that the company spent about $2500.00 more than it received in for 2016, and that amounted to less than 1% of the $267,000.00 spent. A discussion ensued concerning format and organization of the financial reports with questions mainly from Rodney Fitzhugh and the treasurer responding. All questions were resolved and the treasurer will send the RAT chapter some additional documentation concerning RAT chapter 2016 financial activities.

In response to the treasurer’s question, Renata Raziano and Rodney Fitzhugh confirmed that all CPW grant money previously awarded to COPMOBA has either been spent or will be spent in 2017. The treasurer will contact Amy Sharp for info about grants and then will create a company budget for 2017.

The treasurer urged all board members to visit nonprofitaccountingbasics.org for helpful information about non-profit financial management practices. He also suggested that company purchases be paid for directly with company funds, and not by individuals who then seek reimbursement. To the extent that individuals do seek reimbursement, they must provide receipts.

The treasurer also suggested that each chapter chair have access to a debit card for company expenditures. After a brief discussion, the Board, by motion made, seconded and unanimously approved, authorized the Treasurer to contact the company bank about getting the cards issued.

A discussion ensued concerning a separate bank account with limited funds for use by the coordinator. Following motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted unanimously to authorized the treasurer to set up such an account with a limit of $500.00, to include both a debit card and checking services.

The Treasurer reported a company operating account current balance of $153,356.47, and a current money market account balance of $36,151.86.

Old Business

Accounting review

The treasurer suggested that no outside CPA review is needed unless the company anticipates an audit. The treasurer instead suggested that the board appoint a financial committee to consult with the treasurer, review the financials and perform general oversight of company financial affairs. After further discussion the treasurer suggested that Lisa Tonsfeldt might be a good choice of CPA if the company decides to pay for a third-party review.

Clark Rieves, John Howe and Dan Antonelli agreed to sit on the finance committee and agreed to generally meet once a month and at least two times before the next board meeting, and report on their progress at that meeting.

The board discussed recent difficulties with reconciling local chapter financial records against those kept by the treasurer. The treasurer suggested the problems could be solved with better communication and sharing of documents. To begin addressing those issues, the Treasurer will draft written guidelines for chapter personnel to use in managing financial documents and communications. The treasurer also agreed to begin producing financial reports on a month-to-month basis (by the 10th day of each month), instead of quarterly. The chapter chairpersons will consult the treasure within 7 days of receiving such reports to reconcile any discrepancies between the treasurer reports and the local chapter financial records.

Liability Coverage

John Howe has investigated issues with the company CGL insurance policy. He has determined that the current policy does not provide any med pay coverage for volunteers injured while working on company trail projects, or any other company events. The board discussed the fact that, when working with Federal Land managers on federal lands, company volunteers are, provided they have signed appropriate volunteer agreements with the agencies, covered by agency insurance. The board discussed use of mandatory liability damage waivers by all chapters for all volunteers on all company work projects and other events. Rod Fitzhugh and Renata Raziano will share the waivers historically used by the RAT chapter, the Unc Chapter and the Tour De Bloom organizers. Other board members will review and comment on possible changes and the company will attempt to standardize all such waivers to the extent possible, with due consideration for the circumstances of each event. There was a brief discussion about other aspects of the insurance, as follows:

1. the current policy does not cover for anyone injured while participating in a COPMOBA sponsored race or competition on any trail or other venue. That coverage is available only by special event rider, on a case-by-case basis.
2. the current policy does not cover any injuries suffered by any person as a result of completed operations on pump tracks, skills parks and similar projects. RAT has obtained a rider from the insurance carrier to cover the Ridgway pump track completed operations hazard. None of the company’s other, similar projects is covered.
3. John will submit a written report about his insurance review before the next board meeting.

New Business

Paul Koski introduced Kadie Sapp as a prospective new board member from the West End Chapter. Paul plans to resign from the Board in the near future and will assist in getting Kadie up to speed on COPMOBA board business.

Paul explained that, until the West End Group was formally admitted as a Copmoba chapter last year, that group had managed funds cooperatively with West End Trails Alliance and Montrose West Recreation, Inc. (a 501c3 org). The board discussed the need for Copmoba funds to be segregated from funding received from the other groups.

Coordinator

The new coordinator (Tisha McCombs) will start as soon as possible. The treasurer will provide her with all tax and other employment forms, such as W-4 forms.

Various board members will coordinate with each other and Tisha to transfer supplies, equipment and other material from Kristina Kittleson to Tisha. The company agreed to continue using the same P.O. Box in Grand Junction. Clark and Scott will make a point of checking that box at least once a week.

The board agreed that each chapter shall, within 2 weeks, provide a list of priorities and tasks to be assigned the coordinator. Scott will initiate a Google Group thread for this purpose. All board members agreed that Tisha should meet with all chapter chairpersons as soon as possible and also attend all upcoming local chapter meetings. In general, the board expressed the view that local chapters will benefit greatly from having the coordinator involved with local events, local fund raising, grant research, marketing, sales for trails, outreach to local land managers and agencies and local membership issues.

Clark will help with company IT issues such as passwords, website credentials and software issues, including notably Little Green Light. Tisha, Clark and Bryce Palo need to communicate immediately about Tour De Bloom registration status and record keeping.

MOU with BLM

Each chapter within the BLM UFO management area received a proposed MOU for trail maintenance. They all look nearly identical. The company would prefer one agreement for the whole company with the entire BLM. Scott will contact Grand Junction BLM about this and Rod will follow up with the UFO.

NFTAG

NFTAG is the North Fork Trail Advocacy Group and advocates for mountain bike trails on public lands in the North Fork River Valley. Tracy McCurdy attended the meeting on behalf of NFTAG and explained that NFTAG has been working with the DAMB chapter on North Fork issues. Tracy and Sven related to the board frustration among North Fork locals about the red tape required by BLM prior to any maintenance activities. The board discussed the fact that consistent efforts to work within BLM regs and practices to get things done has historically helped build trust between BLM and Copmoba. NGTAG and DAMB will contact BLM with a request that BLM provide trail crew leader opportunities locally to facilitate the trail maintenance partnership between BLM and COPMOBA.

Non Motorized Trail Grant

Discussion of CPW trail maintenance and construction grant application options was tabled until the next meeting.

Fruita Fat Tire Fest

John agreed to look for GV chapter volunteers to man a COPMOBA tent at the Festival this month.

The president noted that Michael Vaughn and Bill Lindler had submitted their resignations from the Board. The Board agreed unanimously to accept the resignations.

The President asked for comments on the minutes from the last previous Board meeting on October 17, 2016. There were no changes or additions and the Board voted unanimously to adopt the minutes.

The President noted that all chapters had submitted written, year-end reports last month and asked all Board members to refer to the google group discussion for copies of all such reports, and to review them. The president then called for updates from each Quick read more or view full articlechapter.

Grand Valley Chapter - John Howe stated that GV will need $56,000.00 to complete work on Mac Ridge, and that the chapter already has $22,000.00. He also advised that VOC will host a Rock Clinic with the GV chapter on March 25-26, and a Trail Crew Leader Training Clinic the week before or the week after. Cost will be $15 for the rock clinic and $20 for the crew leader clinic.

A discussion ensued concerning use of general fund money to pay for VOC crew leadership training. Chris Muhr moved the Board to authorize a disbursement of $200.00 per year per chapter for such training. Steven Barnes seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

The discussion returned to chapter updates.

Unc Chapter: Renata Raziano and Rusty Wouters reported that the chapter will hold a membership meeting for elections and for membership outreach at 2 Rascals on February 16 at 6:00pm, In Montrose. 2 Rascals will discount beer prices for members. Bill Harris will coordinate with BLM and USFS to sign the entire route for Whole Uncalada. The trail comprises 22 miles including Forest Fence Gulch.

DAMB: Sven Enstrom attended a DENCA meeting last with week Bill Harris and reported that 5900 Acres of the reserve is now open to bikes . DAMB Work with land management agencies over the summer to develop a trail plan for the area plan and hopes to get the GV chapter involved. DAMB would like to have a comprehensive proposal this summer. DAMB is also working on Smith Mountain proposal but can’t do much until the new UFO BLM NEPA planner comes on board. Sven believes he’s a mountain biker/racer and is reportedly enthusiastic about single track. DAMB and partners – including Delta County - also have plans for a pump track in Hotchkiss. The County also wants more trails south of Hotchkiss and recently received a grant of $100k for trail inventory.

RAT – Rod Fitzhugh gave updates on plans for trails on Mt. Baldy and McKenzie Butte, and indicated RAT has submitted concept proposals to BLM and Forest Service. He and Edward Hines also explained plans – approved by USFS – for RAT to assist with maintenance and trail improvement efforts on the Dallas Trail between Box Factory Park and Ouray County Road 17. Stephen Barnes noted that Jeff Boches, Ouray County GPS guru, has developed some detailed mapping of the area contemplated for a new, alternate descent from Moonshine Park to County Road 17. Rod and Chris Muhr reported on plans developed by Chris and Jen Taylor to organize an Outdoor Adventure Summit in Ridgway sometime in 2017, with a view to organizing community and outdoor industry leaders in support of Chris and Jen’s

Adreneline Trail concept. The ultimate goal is to facilitate a union of effort from regional municipalities to promote outdoor adventure in Southwest Colorado.

Dan Antonelli reported on progress with the USFS to rehabilitate and rededicate some old but underused and, in some cases, closed single track on the North end of the Uncompahgre Plateau. Dan said the FS and BLM have committed to cooperate on enhancing connectors for some of these old trails and he felt more optimistic than he has in years about the prospects of reclaiming some of the 125 miles of single track the FS approved in their 2002 management plan. He also reported that Tim Gallegos of the DAMB chapter helped get some single track approved by BLM for bikes within the DENCA area.

Chris Muhr mentioned that the State is working with local authorities on the Blueprint 2.0 initiative as a way to examine how best to serve rural communities around the state and identify opportunities to leverage resources. Chris noted that trails could be part of the initiative and also that DOLA will put 8m into West End Broad band development.

Stephen Barnes reported that he had met recently with Louis Benitez. Benitez and Governor Hickenlooper were impressed by the public statement from the Company concerning U.S. Senate Bill 3205 — the Human-Powered Travel in Wilderness Areas Act. Steve also noted that Patagonia and Black Diamond have threatened to pull out of Utah’s Outdoor Retailer Show to protest the State’s efforts to privatize public lands. The giant retailers apparently are seeking alternate venues for the show, most especially in Western Colorado. Other outdoor companies are also considering pulling out of Utah, which might create some opportunities for Western Colorado.

Coordinator report - Kristina Kittleson referred the Board to her written report, a copy of which is attached to these minutes. She also mentioned that local chapters can link e-marketing campaigns to the COPMOBA Colorado Gives page. She will apply for a Capacity Building Grant from publiclandsdayeveryday.org. That is due sometime in May. She will have a draft proposal for the next Board meeting. She also reported a lot of requests for information on TDB 2017. Dates have been set and we need to fix on a per-rider fee. We continue looking for paid help with our book keeping and accounting. Business Incubator will charge 40 per hour – we need to streamline the book keeping

OLD BUSINESS

A discussion ensued about hiring paid book keeper to organize and run our finances and all agreed we need a CPA to review and then re-organize the books. All chapters report difficulty reconciling local account records with general records kept by the Treasurer. The board agreed to look at allotting funds to pay a CPA for up to 12 hours at $40 per to do a review and make recommendations. Kristina, Sven, John and Trish will do some outreach with accountants and report on the results within 3 weeks.

A short discussion followed concerning the need for liability insurance riders to cover pump tracks built and maintained by the Company. John will follow up and report to the Board.

A lengthy discussion ensued concerning Sales for Trails. All chapters report a lack of progress in signing up local businesses. The primary problem in most communities results from inability or unwillingness of businesses to find a way to integrate the program with the POS software. Scott requested that we request specific POS system description of candidate businesses so we can begin to address their needs if possible for implementation.

Grant Admin funds for COPMOBA – Kristina is doing invoicing, Amy donated sometime and submitted reimbursement request or accounting of what got done last year. Kristina reported that, according to Amy, CPW does not require detailed time accounting for the administrative funds budgeted in the grant for the coordinator. The Board wants more coordination between Amy and Kristina to get the coordinator more involved. $10,000 from the grant was allocated for internal grant administration. After discussion with the coordinator the Board agreed to consider reallocating some of that to trail construction, if doing so will not cause a funding short fall for the time the coordinator actually spent on administration of the grant.

Several chapters have need to apply for CPW grant funds this fall. RAT hopes to be ready to apply for a planning grant for the Mt. Baldy proposal. DAMB has need for both construction grant funds and planning funds for Smith Mountain, D-E NCA and the North Fork. Unc needs a Gunny Gorge planning grant and a construction grant. GVC needs construction funds for the Fremont system and possibly the North Desert. The Koko-Mac build out is fully approved and ready to build and needs construction funds. The Board and local committees will work with Amy Sharpe to identify other entities that could apply for CPW funds and then contract with the Company to implement the grants. The company will contract with Palisade in such a fashion later this year.

Sven reported that there is still interest in Paonia for a COPMOBA chapter but there have been no new developments.

A discussion ensued concerning Ebikes on non-motorized trail. BLM regulations currently prohibit such use. Most of the board expressed opposition to Ebikes on non-motorized trails with Rusty in strong disagreement. Following a motion duly made and seconded the board voted unanimously to reach out to the land agencies to sign all Company trail heads clearly for restrictions on Ebiking, or to authorize the Company to do so. The board also unanimously voted, after motion and second, to post current regulations on the company webpages and social media.

COORDINATOR POSITION

The new business discussion was interrupted for a discussion of the Coordinator position. The Coordinator left the room and, following brief discussion and a motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted to make the coordinator full-time (at least 2000 hours per year). Following further discussion and a motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted to offer the position to Kristina Kittleson at $42000.00 per year with an opportunity for an annual bonus based on performance review.

The Board then discussed and outlined coordinator priorities as follows:

Merchandising

Chapter outreach and membership outreach

Branding

Website upgrade

Event and activity coordination planning

At chapter level

Grant admin

Training with Amy

Social media

Attend chapter meetings

Kristina Kittleson returned to the meeting and the Board offered her full time employment on the terms approved earlier by motion and vote.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS

The Board discussed the 2017 RAT Race and other possible race events. Ideas were considered for a points series, a stage race, rotating venues and other possibilities. The board agreed that racing could serve as a good marketing strategy for the company. The Board further agreed to revisit the issue following the 2017 RAT Race and encouraged any other local chapters interested in the possibility to develop plans.

Stephen encouraged the board to considered taking a more affirmative position on political and public policy issues important to MTB riders and trail users. He cited statistics suggesting that the outdoor industry generates more revenue than the pharmaceutical products with sales worldwide of over 800 billion dollars. The board instructed the coordinator to track openings on the SW RAC and NW RAC so the board can recruit single-track friendly nominees to fill those openings. Colorado Canyons is also looking for additional board members which could be a further opportunity to expand the company’s public policy influence.

The Board then discussed the conflict between seeking donations to the company through Amazon Smiles and the Company’s relationship with local retailers. Given the dearth of income to date from Amazon Smiles, the board voted (6-3), following motion duly made and seconded, to terminate the Company involvement with Amazon Smiles.

The president asked if the board had any interest in reaching out to neighboring mountain bike associations such as Crested Butte and Roaring Fork to discuss trail advocacy topics in overlapping areas of our regions. Specifically this would include discussion of the Carbondale-Crested Butte Trail, and how it may tie into the North Fork Valley and beyond. The board was in support of the idea, and Scott suggested we hold a summit with interested parties in the next 6 months. The president said he will initiate discussions for a possible regional trails group summit in the next 6 months.

Tour De Bloom

The coordinator advised that World Wide Expeditions will hold per rider pricing at 390 for sag support. Based on that, the Board, following motion duly made and seconded – resolved unanimously to set guest pricing at $695.00 per rider for 2017. The coordinator reported that she had some trouble collecting for auction items from several guests. The board agreed by consensus to accept a reasonable amount of lost income from the auction. The board agrees that the Company should work harder to obtain high-quality auction items. The coordinator will initiate swag collection with an appeal to chapters this spring. Sierra Designs will donate a sleeping bag and a tent. All Metals will donate a sculpture and other items. The president requested that each chapter attempt to acquire a minimum of one high value ($100 wholesale cost or greater) donation for the event. The Coordinator will work with Trish Oakland to secure discount pricing from Primal Wear for ride jerseys, which will be sold at a profit, independent of entry fee, to TDB riders.

WEB page/Branding

A detailed discussion ensued concerning the web site and branding. Some members expressed a preference to move away from the Colorado Flag motif because it is used extensively by virtually every business in the State. Several think the Company could better distinguish its brand with a new look.

The coordinator wants to redesign the website with a word press platform. Other board members cited experiences suggesting word press would be a good choice. The coordinator will reach out to designers previously identified, including Treefeather Designs in Montrose for pricing on both the web design and branding.

Merchandise

The coordinator will determine what immediate inventory needs we have and order additional shirts, hats, cups and socks accordingly, keeping numbers conservative pending consideration of branding changes. We will consider club ride jerseys and Primal Wear.

FUNDRAISING

Many donors seem to want their donations earmarked for a particular chapter. A lengthy discussion of business member premiums and donor out-reach produced no consensus and the discussion was continued to the next meeting. However, after review of the bylaws the board concluded that all business entity members are entitled to one vote as Company members and those wishing to vote will need to designate an individual to exercise the vote for the business.

Appointments

Following nominations, seconds and consent of those nominated, officers were approved by unanimous vote, as follows:

President: Scott Winans

V.P. : Chris Muhr

Secretary: Rod Fitzhugh

Following nomination and seconds, the Board unanimously approved the appointments of Edward Hines and Trisha Oakland to the Board.

2017 Meeting Dates

The Board set quarterly meetings for 2017 on the second Monday of every third months at the following locations:

April 10: Delta

July 10: Montrose

October 9: Nucla

The Board agreed to hold the January 2018 retreat in Ridgway on January 20th.

Scott asked the Board to review the minutes from the last previous Board Meeting. Paul noted one change: The West End Chapter had 9 participants at the West End Hill Climb, not 90.

On motion made and seconded to approve the minutes with the noted change, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes

CHAPTER REPORTS

Unc

Renata: Please see her written report, incorporated here by reference.

Nucla

Paul: Please see his written report, attached hereto and made a part hereof Paul plans to retire from the Board – JB Stewart may come in Quick read more or view full article– he wants a Ute Creek Downhill

GVC

John – Please see his written report, incorporated here by reference. Mack Ridge is a big project; the chapter performed Maintenance at Flowing park last week; BLM makes mistakes – BLM failed to obtain proper clearances for a new trail which BLM had allow COPMOBA to, creating some problems.

Delta

Sven – Please see his written report, incorporated here by reference.

Ridgway

Rod – Please see his written report, incorporated here by reference.
Rod moved the board to accept 5 new local committee members (Sundra Hines, Jasmine Oeink, Brian Hoefling, Kris Noel and John Hulburd) voted in by the local chapter on July 13th, and to amend the Company Bylaws to allow local committees to have up to 10 members; a second of the motion and discussion followed concerning benefits of having additional local committee persons. The motion passed by unanimous vote

OFF-AGENDA COMMENT

Bill harris: DENCA RMP will call for some single track trail

TREASURER’S REPORT

Clark - Please refer to the financials submitted by Clark to the board, incorporated here by reference.

Rod noted discrepancies between Clark’s Ridgway numbers and his own. Rod and Clark will resolve this via email and, if necessary, phone. The Company needs to file IRS form 990 for 2015 – it requires a conflict of interest policy for IRS compliance - John will pull together standard IRS language and put it on the Board group page for review, discussion and vote, then all board members must sign it, or the Board will need to consider waiver of any conflicts noted.

A discussion followed concerning the need to keep track of hours per month each board member devotes to company business. Various members estimated their own time spent on COPMOBA business. The Board reached consensus that 15 hours per month per member is a reasonable estimate. Clark will use that number.

COORDINATOR REPORT

Scott noted we don’t have time to discussion of the coordinator position. He will circulate a summary of prior discussions and other info accumulated concerning this subject and we will try to resolve it via email vote.

Kristina - Please see her written report, incorporated here by reference.

We have 286 total members; 256 individuals and 29 business. This number excludes TDB riders

The Company has 1088 Facebook likes

Kristina encourages each chapter to organize a chapter fun ride at each chapter to generate interest and enthusiasm.

Kristina suggests a subcommittee meeting on Branding to include herself and Stephen and possible other Board members.

Kristina would like to focus some energy on membership and sales for trails

A discussion followed concerning Colorado Gives Day in December. The company has developed some information which Kristina will use to get COPMOBA involved in the program

A discussion followed concerning grant money available to expand our organization: Public Lands Every Day Foundation. Kristina plans to apply on behalf of the Company – She believes up to $10,000 could be available.

2016 CPW GRANT

Rod reported that we are awaiting a Grant Agreement from CPW, which we will execute and return to the State. Then we will need wait for a signature from the Governor. Ridgway has all contracts drafted and ready for signature for the RAT contractors. Renata confirmed the same for Montrose. Rod reported that we had a contract in hand by this time last year. Paul noted that all 2016 CPW grant awards have been delayed. Rod commented that it may affect our ability to complete this year’s construction schedule

Scott noted we returned a revised budget for 2015 CPW funds to Amy Sharp today, and she will submit it to CPW

UNC RMP COMMENTS

A detailed discussion ensued. Rod indicated RAT wants more trails on McKenzie Butte, which has not been designated as a Recreation Management Area in the RMP, despite many discussion with BLM about trails in that area. He has learned from BLM UFO personal that CPW is creating a big impediment to trail development in that location and all over the state due to its intense focus on big game management - Scott suggest we jumpt a few rungs on the ladder in CPW – Several people commented CPW is just an advisory board, BLM can proceed without CPW approval; Scott will help get to CPW at the state level with contact info for upper-level CPW officials; we can try to by pass them with pressure on BLM from local business and government if we need to, but need to try and get them in the loop. Unc meets internally next Monday, July 25th, at 5:30 at Cascade Bikes to discuss comments to the RMP – mechanized and motorized are lumped together for the most part and that does not reflect reality; we need to push for non-motorized trail

The discussion turned to getting Jumbo Mountain trails sanctioned and refined, with reference to the RMP. Tracy noted that West Slope Conservation Center wants special rec management designation for Jumbo and to change the current direction in the area; we need more special rec management as suggested in RMP Alt B and B1; Rod suggests that Ridgway, Unc, Delta and Nucla chapters could incorporate North Fork comments with our local chapter comments. Several people noted that the RMP Alternatives B and D (BLM Preferred) designate Jumbo Mountain as a Special Recreation Management Area. [not discussed at the meeting, but Rod reviewed RMP post meeting and refers Delta and North Fork people to Appendix J, which mentions Jumbo as SRMA in the preferred alt, with Mt.Biking as one of the target activities] North Fork people note access problems through private subdivision but that county roads touch the subject property in other areas. The Board urged NF people to focus not on the access dispute, but on getting business, government and other community members to submit written comments to BLM in favor of Alternatives B and D (BLM preferred), specifically because development of Mt. Bike recreation in the North Fork will help support the local economy in a very strong way. Once the BLM locks in Jumbo as an SRMA, they will be obligated to develop the recreational opportunities there, including biking. The Board urged North Fork to be patient, take the process one step at a time, with SRMA designation as indicated in Alternatives B and D the most immediate task. Load the BLM with positive comments on that outcome. COPMOBA can provide economic impact stats for NF and Delta to use in comments to BLM RMP. Several Board members urged the North Fork group to join the DAMB chapter of COPMOBA to take advantage of the leverage the Company has with BLM state-wide, rather than work as an isolate, unincorporated association.

Rod – suggested we each chapter submit it’s own comments to the other local chapters for vetting before submission to BLM on RMP, to promote consistency.

NEW TREASURER

Tabled

INSURANCE

John notes that an indemnity agreement between the City of GJ and the Company concerning pump track liability provides only limited protection, if any. He suggests we get it insured as we did with the RAT pump track now under development. John will take the lead with our insurance carrier.

RAT PUMP TRACK

The track is in place but will need ongoing maintenance and refinement continuously in the immediate future. Sara Ballantyne has taken the lead locally to get that done and will organize a weekly work session.

GOVERNER’S VISIT

The Palisade Plunge and Riverfront at Palisade made the Governors list of 16 trails for 2016 list. The Governor wants this made a priority (trail recreation for economic development purposes). He has appointed a state director; we need to get to that director to lean on CPW. Need the governor to lean on CPW. Scott will get relevant contact info out to the other board members

TOUR DE GOLD

Tabled

HUMAN POWERED TRAVEL IN WILDERNESS PROPOSAL

Please refer to the email circulated by Scott and provide any relevant comment via the Google Group.

SALES FOR TRAILS

Cascade has not gotten on board; The Board discussed getting Chris Davis at Bicycle Outfitters involved. We ran short on time and will continue discussion at the next meeting

NEXT MEETING

We will meet again on October 17th in Ridgway. Stephen will talk to town about using their facilities for a meeting

A motion was made to approve the minutes from the January meeting. After brief discussion the motion was seconded and passed unanimously moves approval

TREASURER REPORT

Clark Rieves advised that he will transfer $1000 to each chapter fund from the general fund on or about April 19, for the annual chapter disbursement.
Clark also advised that the company insurance premium was paid after notice of cancellation and the insurance carrier confirmed confirmed receipt of payment. Clark is working on the company 990 tax return and will need to file a long form this Quick read more or view full articleyear due to receipt by the company of over $250K in 2015. Money has started coming in for TDB, but most will go back out for event expenses.

Clark mentioned the need to update authorized signatures on the company bank accounts. After a brief discussion, a motion was made, seconded and passed unanimously, as follows:

Resolved that (a) Bill Harris shall be removed as a signor on the company money market account; (b) Laurie Brandt shall be removed as a signor on the company business account; (c)Chris Muhr and Clark Rieves shall remain as the only signors on the money market account; (d) Scott Wianns, Rod Fitzhugh, Renata Raziano, Chris Muhr, Paul Koski, Sven Edstrom and Clark Rieves shall remain as signors on the company business account, and (e), John Howe shall be added as a signor on the business account.

A brief discussion ensued concerning the extent to which the Coordinator should have access to the financial records of the company. The board reached a consensus that we will not add the Coordinator as a signor on any bank accounts but the treasurer will continue to provide her information as needed and action will be taken as needed to obtain access for the Coordinator to the company’s bank account on line, but will not have authority to access any funds.

Clark sent a chapter financial report to each chapter and each chapter needs to review, discuss and provide feed back to Clark.

Clark advised that the money market account has $35K we haven’t touched in two years.

Coordinator Report

The coordinator was not present due to illness. The board discussed expansion of the coordinator role and our need for more administrative assistance, especially with grants. We would like to hire K. Kittleson as a full-time employee to perform those functions but money remains an issue. Clark will review historic finances and provide a report concerning our financial wherewithal to pay the Coordinator on a full time basis. The board asks that the President discuss the subject with the coordinator and attempt to determine what salary might be needed to make the position full time, and how the role might best be expanded. The board will revisit this topic at the next meeting with the intent of making a firm decision.

CHAPTER REPORT

WEST END
Received from CPW 32K official award letter on WMRecDist grant app
WEBA – change to WETA (trails)
COPMOBA – some officers of WETA are members; Paul would like to see WETA absorbed into COPMOBA at some point but the group on whole does not
The John Brown Canyon Hill Climb was successful; 90 rode it and Paul finished 2nd
Montrose W Rec will get from Montrose County 4500, from Telluride 4500 and from the State 3500 state to build 4 miles single track
WMRec meets soon with Senator Bennett’s staff about recalcitrance from the BLM UFO concerning such as that encountered on recent Paradox Trail Reroute.
Paul suggest the Board Meet in the West End some time soon so he won’t have to drive 5 hours round trip

RAT

Rod Reported:
RAT has completed trailer and tool purchases authorized in the 2015 CPW grant award; further, that RAT has expended all but about $1800 of the second advance on the grant; also that RAT has another $20K advance coming from CPW, which the company will have to advance from the RAT general fund or the company general fund prior to application for reimbursement from CPW; further that RAT plans to cycling events for this years RAT Fest, namely, a poker run on the new trails north of town and an Alley Crit in the vicinity of Town Park; the event is scheduled for June 11; also, that BLM will sponsor a work day/fun ride/ribbon cutting ceremony at the Road 10 trail head on June 4th. The Colorado State BLM Director will attend, along with representatives of Montrose County, the Town of Ridgway and RAT.
The Town of Ridgway has authorized RAT to construct a pump track. RAT has obtained commitments for volunteer design, materials, equipment and labor. The town will assume responsibility for the track after it is constructed. The town will issued an excavation permit so donated dirt can be dumped on the site. No further action will be authorized until certain insurance issues have be resolved and RAT/COPOMBA and Town make a written agreement. COPMOBA’s insurance carrier reported to Rod they will charge the company and additional $400 per year to insurance against liability arising from RAT’s construction of the track, even if the Town assumes responsibility for future maintenance and management. The board overall expressed concerns about the additional premium cost and reluctance to authorize further action without resolution of the insurance issue. Steve will talk to town staff about possibly having the Town include COPMOBA as an additional insured on the town liability policy. Rod will again approach the carrier about obtaining coverage at a lower premium.
Bill reported that RAT has received financial support from one equestrian and that he and Scott Vanderplaatz will scout a black diamond trail line on May 1.

MONTROSE

Renata and Rusty reported:

Unc will host a movie night next at 2 Rascals with an award presentation for Laurie B; organize and operate a beer garden in June when BTC passes through Montrose; Work days on sunset mesa are set for April 30th with CMU kids and other volunteers- Scott will flag, Gary Baker will supervise; have reviewed comments concerning CPW rejection of the 2016 planning grant app and will resubmit planning grant this year; Amy Sharp is already working on it and will do it for very cheap because CPW has never rejected her on a grant app previously - Wildlife management was a significant issue on the last app.
Renata mentioned a May 3 collaboration meeting at Holiday in Montrose organized by BLM; She will forward the announcement received from BLM; also, Unc had a group meeting with USFS about a new trail head on highway 90 at the end of the pavement west of Montrose; this will serve mainly atv and jeep use, will include parking and restrooms; the county will eventually own or lease the trail head property likely let the atv community do what they want with it. The BLM and/or county will reserve the opposite side of the road for a non-motorized trail head; Rusty and Renata indicate that side of 90 offers excellent trail potential; also, the City of Montrose wants an MOU with the Unc Chapter and the chapter solicits any assistance the other chapters have from prior experience with similar arrangements

The Delta and Montrose Chapters had a meeting with BLM Concerning the NCA along gunny gorge; BLM wants concepts and “visions” for trail on that part of BLM and also the area south of landfill road near Montrose. Both those areas have excellent potential and both local chapters will develop proposed routes for BLM

DELTA CHAPTER REPORT

Sven reported:

25 participated in the Smith Mtn Bash; the event helped familiarize participants with the area terrain; also, the chapter has vents planned – the Unc bash on a date to be determined – that will be a campout/trail work/ride event; A grand mesa county line trail work day will be scheduled also; DAMB plans 3 group rides– 9/10 in crested butte with a beer and chili fest - no definite location yet; also – a kokopelli shuttle ride in October with no definite date – similar to TDB with no outfitter; also, adouble track ride on the old grand mesa road in July

DAMB also needs to develop a list of trails and priority for the what we want built in the Gunny Gorge area – then develop a map and get it to BLM so they can develop a travel management plan.

DAMB has also had communications with BLM about areas to build and ride on near pleasure park; Sven has concerns about lack of community involvement; Chris Muhr reported that he and Jen Taylor are developing a concept to interweave several SW Colorado communities along an Adrenaline Trail for cyclists, intending to create a inter-community push for marketing and promotion of recreational opportunity.

GV CHAPTER

John Reports

He posted a written report on Google Group page and urges all to review it. Highlights include: Work is progressing for construction of new trail and reroutes totaling 8.5 miles to complete most of the remaining McGinnis Canyons RMP syste; in January the local chapter committed $5K and the COPMOBA board authorized a 2500 match for what donors would contribute; also have applied for this years REI grant and fully expect to receive that money soon; Fruita donated 10K; an arch survey is underway; surveys will likely cost about 9600 bucks; Back Country Biker pledged 2000; A further meeting is set for May 5th with the town of Fruita; the NEPA process should be done soon and construction will follow: the mac ridge component of the trail system will be hired out and the rest of it will likely use volunteer efforts; construction is expected to commence this fall.

Gear up (MOG fest) will happen this weekend in Fruita with a beer tent

SIDE ISSUE SPECIAL EVENTS

A discussion ensued about permitting and insurance costs for special events. Someone mentioned that the basic insurance coverage includes 4 special events. Rod identified 2 of them as RAT FEST and Tour De Bloom. No one could name the others. Several in attendance endorsed the idea of having the general fund pay for insurance coverage for at least one special event each year for each chapter. The consensus agreed that we need to make sure we have insurance in place for all special events and need to give all chapters an opportunity to host a special event occasionally. No specific action was proposed and not motions were offered. By consensus the board agreed to bring this matter back for discussion at the next meeting.

SIGNS – Chris is working with John Hodge to create standardized “where are you maps” with QR codes on the maps - will include a link from the QR to our website so users can contribute direct to our donation page; RAT members report similar plans for the RAT system with assistance from Blue Door GIS (Alisa Gardner).

GUIDE JERSEYS FOR TDB

Discussion of a request from Whit Smith to authorize purchase from General Funds of ride leader jerseys for TDB ride leaders. The idea was disapproved by consensus with not motions offered.

CORSAR CARDS

JOHN reported that the Mesa County Sheriffs expressed frustration about resources expended on rescue efforts for MT bikers and want COPMOBA to help promote CORSAR cards with the MT bike community; this idea was the subject of an email motion offered by John earlier this month, which motion passed by a vote of 8 in favor and 2 opposed. John sent a stock PR statement to Kristrina for electronic distribution.

BOARD ACTION METHODOLOGY

A brief discussion ensued concerning the board’s method and manner of action, with brief reference to the bylaws. The consensus was to reserve email motions and votes for urgent business and to have each board member post request for action to the google group for inclusion on the next scheduled meeting agenda.

GOOGLE GROUPS

A brief discussion led to questions about security issues that make use of google groups questionable for important financial data; we probably should use secure drop box for such sharing

NEXT MEETING

Agreement was made for a meeting on July 18 at 6:00, in Montrose. Renata will locate and designate a spot for the meeting - maybe the city hall conference room

John Howe is the new Grand Valley Chapter board member. Scott moved to have Sven represent the DAMB chapter and Paul seconded it. All approved. Dan suggested “action items” to be sent separately to remind board members what their responsibilities are. Paul moved to approve minutes and Dan seconded them. All approved the minutes. Scott mentioned that he encouraged the City Manager of Fruita to communicate with the City Manager of Delta to talk about the value Quick read more or view full articleof trails to the community and working with COPMOBA.

Reports

Chapter Reports; call for questions/comments (30 min) Scott
o Grand Valley Canyons John H
Fruita/Kokopelli - 3 bids for trail design work Wrangler extension, Mack Ridge addition, Steve’s Loop, Moore Fun cutoff. Approx 8 miles. City of Fruita has been proactive about this trail. Chris Muhr will attend the Colorado Bike Summit for the Colorado Adrenaline Trail concept. The summit is Feb 8-9.
o RAT Rod F / Bill L
Rod sent an email last night. Nothing new since Dec. See note attached from email. Effort to get traffic off of paved river trail onto single track on City of Ridgway. Top of Pines has 350 acres where they want trails constructed by COPMOBA on County property. Interest in McKenzie Butte area with 5,000 acres. RAT Festival in second week in tour. Guided “group social” rides should be considered. Rod is to look into whether the BLM will allow this kind of ride. Can it be an educational? They will talk about it at the Jan 26th meeting. Clunker event is planned as part of this.
o Uncompahgre Renata R
See attached Uncompahgre Chapter Report. June 11th trail maintenance at Cerro Summit. Waiting for Spring Creek connectors construction grant. Jones Draw is designed, but clearances are not done yet. Possible construction in 2017. Movie night in March at 2 Rascals. Beer garden for BTOC in June. July or August with BLM for a race by Donnie, but not a done deal. Waiting for grants.
o DAMBikers Sven Edstrom
Sven is working on getting up to speed. Jason Love is new president. They are working on their local committee. Tim and Michael and Ace are involved at different levels. Need more women representation, too. Sven will get a meeting organized in Feb. The GGNCA TMP is in progress. Smith Mountain is still an area they are focusing on. Rod suggested that the RAT, West End, Unc, DAMB chapters should meet with BLM office in Montrose. Rod will follow-up with Amy Sharp about this and draft a letter to the BLM to suggest this meeting. Use trails and recreational activities as economic driver for Delta. Region 10 and Delta Economic Development group. What is the follow-up? Colorado Canyons Association (Bill Harris is on board) may be another advocate for trail development. We need to follow-up on the TMP for the GGNC with Edd Franz. Rod suggested attending Town Council meetings such as in Paonia, Delta, Hotchkiss, and Cedaredge. Local businesses such as motels, restaurants and other stores need to show support to the Chamber of Commerce and County Commissioners. Chris pointed out that this will snowball into more businesses and individuals moving to the area due to quality of life.
o West End Paul K
Stakeholders meeting with the BLM next week for the West End. Paul signed an agreement with SMC, Chamber, BLM, WEBA for Burn Canyon area mostly. 1/3 of the way through the trail construction by Samantha Andrew’s crew, but they can’t start until later in the season. He’s waiting to hear on the CPW grant for the Paradox re-route. He still has $9,000 to work with for trail building. Goals - Jan 28th meeting in Naturita for WEBA, increase COPMOBA membership, 3 miles of re-route and trailhead, Burn Canyon area, sign maintenance and inventory trails that are existing. John Brown climb event in spring as a possible event. He wants to have a stacked loop area in San Miguel County. Scott asked Paul to identify a project that could be developed in a 3 year time frame. The locals need to see it close to town and consumer friendly where the rider can’t get lost. Chris made a motion that we identify the West End group as a formal COPMOBA Chapter and Laurie seconded it. A little discussion on number of mountain bikers in the area. The chapter has been given $1,000 each year and Paul has been a board member for 21 years. Rusty asked if they would still be getting this fund even thought the group is so small. Rod answered that you have to spend money to make money. They also need it for projects. Dan and Scott added that the Paradox Trail (Grand Loop) is incredible value to COPMOBA. Paul has 3 to be on a committee. All voted in favor of the the West End becoming an official chapter. SMC gave them $1,000 for mapping for 2016.

Treasurer Report & Review (60 min) General Review
Clark was not present. Scott summarized. See attached Treasurer’s report. RAT group has $3,500 variance from report. $113,409 US Bank total. $159,733 assets. Liabilities are payroll only. Each chapter needs to go through their P&L with Clark directly. There is an on-going accounting struggle, so
each chapter needs to have direct contact to rectify the status of their accounts. Scott asked that by the end of February, each chapter needs to complete their review with Clark and provide it to the board for the next board meeting. Laurie suggested that there is a shadow accountant to work with Clark to have a check of the numbers and procedures. Someone with experience with a non-profit organization with 5 chapters would be helpful, too. Our standard needs to have the quality for state level review. Here are the 3 needs identified:
1. Account Review - to find someone to provide periodic/annual of accounting status. Rusty will ask his and Rod’s CPA (Scott Middleton). Dan will ask Colleen. Chris will ask his CPA, Alan W.
2. On-going Assistant Treasurer - someone to engage with Clark in a parallel nature on an on-going basis. This person may be a future Treasurer. They should be someone familiar with non-profits, CPA, grants, and help us prepare for an audit. KK to put out a call for this position to our membership. She will look into Colorado Non-profit Association and GJ Business Incubator. Names of Jeff Winland and Rob Parsons were suggested.
3. Accounting Practices Review - someone to improve/review overall accounting practices.

Coordinator Report & Review (60 min) Kristina K
See attached Coordinator’s report. We need a photo of new logos on trailer. Rod will have a trailer in Ridgway soon. KK will send the board information about how the stickers are used on the trailers and memberships. COPMOBA general fund. Let her know of each chapter’s member drives, generally in March, and a feature ride. Get your information to the RIDE magazine from each chapter. Chris to go to BC bike summit in February. Unc chapter to do their drive in March at 2 Rascals. Sven to do a combined feature ride with member drive in Sidewinder for DAMB chapter. RAT Festival in June will likely be their member drive and Rod will contact lapsed members. KK to resend list of members to each chapter so they can send emails or call members or former members. Idea by KK of a shop donating a bike and every time someone volunteers, their name is put in for a draw for the bike. MOG Festival (Gear Up) will be in Fruita this year and can serve as a member drive effort for GJ chapter. Donation boxes with membership envelopes at the major trailheads. Have a scannable QR code so people can join by PayPal. KK suggested that we designate a membership person who handles contacting and working on members per each chapter. KK is expected to be involved with administering the new grants, as we get them. Dan asked for a log of where KK is spending her time. Scope is half-time for KK with a fixed salary. For admin of the trail building project, there needs to be an on-the-ground person and the overall admin/reporting person. Scott asked KK to comment on her tasks for grant admin (invoices, emails, calls, budgeting, reports, follow-up).
o Coordinator role; review concept to expand

New Business
1) Remote trails of Gateway and the closure of most; comments & direction (Dan A) - BLM’s RMP out of GJ Field Office closed all trails (40-50 miles of singletrack) to mtn bikes except 4 miles of Picket Trail. We protested and appealed, but had no movement from the BLM. Do we want to fight this as an organization or should Dan fight this on his own? These are existing trails, not new trails, but they are closed to mtn bikes. If COPMOBA is to continue with the fight, we must team with USFS,
WEBA, Backcounty Bikers and Gateway Canyons Resort. Challenging a revision to the RMP. Blue Creek and Lower Ute Creek can be two that we focus our effort on. Zeb Miracle could be a good advocate with us. We resolved to oppose some of the Gateway area trails closures with cooperation with other users.

2) Comprehensive Insurance Review; any initial comments (John H) - He has the policies and endorsements, but he hasn’t reviewed them yet. Early March is his deadline.

4) 2016 Tour de Bloom; input from Bryce, planning (Kristina) - Bryce will continue coordinating event, but Rod is out; Whit Smith is likely assisting the coordinator; May 12-15; Jim Ellis and Ross Fuller and Dan Antonelli are ride leaders. Jim Maggio was suggested as 5th guide and helps with auction. The board was fine with the plan as Bryce outlined in his letter. The work should be split between 2-3 different people, not just having one coordinator. By an October board meeting, we should select a new coordinator. At the next board meeting we will start discussion of responsibilities. The flyer needs to get out and the website needs updating ASAP.

5) Sales for Trails Program
a) Review status; program format, materials currently avail, implementation method(s) - “Get involved” tab of website talks about the program and application form. A poster and sticker are sent to businesses who sign up online. Scott also put together a step by step primer that is emailed to the business. Rod asked KK to put it on the website so they can read about it before they commit. Chris asked for an “opt in” options rather than an “opt out” option. Scott said a shop can implement this however they want. There is no process for follow-through. KK to send a quarterly reminder and let them know when they sign up that there will be a quarterly reminder for payment. Dan suggested a short video of an interaction example. Stephen Barnes (according to Rod) will be presenting to the Chamber of Commerce how this plan will work. KK suggested that we each pick 2 or 5 businesses and present it to them. 2 sets of materials for each binder to go to each chapter.
b) ID necessary steps to improve outreach & assign responsibilities to execute - see above. Rusty to talk with Cascade Bicycles.

6) Grants:
a) review status of all current applications - upcoming REI grant announcement in Feb and due end of April. Can be for trail planning, tools, promotional, reclamation, trail construction. Each has a different focus. Chris suggested a trail name called “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” GJ Jr Service League grant is in August. GJ Lions Club - Mesa County capital needs (tools, trailer, equipment). End of first week in March is the deadline for the REI grant idea for each chapter. People for Bikes grant. Bell grant (up to $100K) and IMBA Grant. KK to send email to board about these grant possibilities. Currently 3 CPW grants.
b) review opportunities for 2016, schedules to meet - see above

7) Finances: review committee appointed; Rusty, Bill L, Dan A, working w Kristina & Clark a) discuss & outline goals for committee - more direction on distribution of the $1,000 per year, how do we keep local books seamlessly with the organization’s finances; MAIN GOAL: written document of our accounting policies and methods. How does 10% of donations go to general fund? Grants may have restricted funds. This is a 1 year appointment. Output from 1st meeting is March 1st. Goal is first draft of current accounting policies and methods. Provide recommendation to board for how to proceed. We need to collect minutes beyond what is posted. Anyone with minutes, send them to Dan as the committee point-person in the next week.
b) points to discuss: Rod questions RE accounting - 1K chapter funding upon request was clarified, 10% withhold discuss further. Rod made a motion at board meeting on Nov 5, 2014…(see document), basically 10% will go to general fund except for grants that don’t allow for overhead/admin. Rod made a motion that all income generated by a local chapter (except for memberships and grants) shall be deposited in COPMOBA bank account and 10% will be allocated to the general fund and remaining 90% allocated for use by the local chapter and spent by the local chapter within the limits of the bylaws, articles of incorporation, and direction of the board and that such allocation shall be recorded in the company books. Chris seconded the motion and all voted in favor. This motion passed unanimously.
c) John made a motion that for grants, allocations to the general fund shall be made on a case by case basis in accordance with the terms of the grant with approval of the Board. Rod seconded it. All voted in favor. This motioned passed unanimously.
d) Chris made a motion that on a set date, such as February 1st, $1,000 is allocated to each chapter from the general fund for use as per their discretion. John seconded the motion. Discussion continued. It allows each chapter to create a budget. All voted in favor and the motion passes unanimously. Rod made a motion that the general fund will allocate $1,000 as of January 21, 2016 to each chapter that didn’t receive their annual allowance in 2015. All voted in favor and the motion passed unanimously.
e) Laurie made a motion to have Paul Koski of the West End Chapter and Sven Edstrom of the DAMB (Delta Area Mountain Bikers) Chapter to be authorized to sign on the COPMOBA US Bank Account. Rod seconded the motion. All voted in favor and the motion passed unanimously.

8) Annual Event Planning
a) Identify large event plans across all chapters - Bike Tour of Colorado (Unc Chapter), Gear Up (GV Chapter), RAT Fest (June 11), John Brown (WE Chapter)
c) Liquor License usage for events - We are covered for TdB and RAT Fest, but all other events are covered under separate riders. 15 calendar days per year.

9) Maps; printed and electronic a) historically printed items - Koko, Tab, and Paradox. Printed maps are in demand at the Visitor’s Center. Do we want to update the maps? How about a rack card? Let’s try that for about 6 months with QR and membership information. VistaPrint. Paul volunteered to be the point person on a rack card. b) plans for ongoing map creation, sharing, common formats, etc. - maps for each chapter, but they come from a variety of sources. Everything must have a COPMOBA logo on it. Maps should suggest a direction of flow. Each chapter should look at their local maps and see if the maps need editing. John Hodge does a good job on maps; Blue Door GIS (Elisa Gardner) does a good job, also.

10) Mission, Vision, Values (Stephen comments, group discussion) - Market and branding. Some branding already, but it leaves out the word “trail.” Kokopelli is overused icon, but it has been with us for quite a while. Our website is different than our TdB website. The bikerpelli with the Colorado flag is a newer development. Does our logo indicate trail advocacy? We should review our mission, vision and values. Use a chainring, tire, bike or other identifying feature relating to trails or cycling. All chapters should have logo and consistent website that ties into COPMOBA. The board discussed using the bikerpelli and the Colorado flag instead of the Kokopelli figure. Rusty suggested to change our name to COPMOBA Trails. We also discussed adding the COPMOBA Trails logo as a subset figure on the chapter logo. KK suggested that we hire a marketing/branding specialist to look at our branding package (graphic design company). The Board needs to send ideas of possible branding people to KK.

11) Laurie suggested Next Board meeting should include discussion of mission, vision and values.

12) MISC: a) Reminder about Non-profit board member responsibilities - review at http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/charities/boardTrainingModules.html. Scott asked that we all read through these responsibilities on our own. b) Email communications for Board. Rusty and Bill looked into this. Rusty found 3 options. Google Groups - must have email and membership. ProBoards - he made a dashboard to experiment based on topics and comments. Disadvantage is that it is not commonly used. Facebook - this seems most useful, but not good about it is long discussions. KK indicated that Yahoo Groups is good for her other board. Rusty recommends Google Groups. Lots of options, well known, powerful, document sharing. Rusty made a motion that we use Google Groups as our Board email communications as a private closed group. Rusty will administer it for a 1 year term. Sven seconded the motion. All voted in favor, not opposed. The motion passed unanimously. c) DAMB - More than one DAMB member to serve on the COPMOBA Board? Yes.

13) Election of Officers. Rod recommended polling of all current officers regarding willingness to retain current seats. Poll taken; all willing (sans presence of Clark as Treasurer) except for Laurie as Secretary - she is resigning from board. After discussion, Rod indicated that he is willing to stand as
Secretary. Scott stated that he would entertain a motion of the following positions, Dan moved and Paul seconded the motion. All voted in favor.
President - Scott Winans
Vice President - Chris Muhr
Secretary - Rod Fitzhugh
Treasurer - Clark Reeves

? Treasurer Report (15 min) Clark Rieves
New info presentation format is good & will continue. We have money to spend. Insurance cost has grown the most. Work Comp in addition to general liability. Clark asked what to do about the 10% from each chapter during fund raising. He suggests having and entry at the end of the year the 10%. Current method is deducting 10% based on gross revenue and entry by entry. Discussion determined there is no change from current method. Scott asked for a committee of 3 to determine how to deal with donation policy when it is directed to a specific chapter. By next week, Scott will appoint 3 people to a finance committee. They will look at all financial policies.
? Insurance overview (10 min) Clark Rieves
General policy with $1 million limit and $1,000 deductible, covers officers, with exceptions. It does not include trail work or bike related injury. Our coverage is only through federal, city, county, etc. policies. This is why it's so important that all workers sign a waiver for trailwork activities. No coverage for race, tour, competition. We do have Hired Auto Liability insurance- for trailers. Special events cost extra, typically $150 - $200/event, under 500 person, covers no competition. Liquor covered up to $10K sales. Ded is $500 for property damage insurance, but it doesn't cover sports events, punitive damages, medical payments, fireworks, amusement devices, sports or stunts. IE Bike rodeo needs a waiver since sports are not covered. We discussed the need for a standard COPMOBA waiver for all events such as group rides. Stephen Barnes proposed that we have legal counsel review our insurance coverage and liabilities to determine deficiencies and recommended modifications. Dan seconded it. All voted in favor. We set 3 weeks from today for consideration of project and establishing a date of completion by a reviewing agency. Renewal is March 14, 2016 for the policies so our goal is to have resolution by that date. Scott requests a written summary statement of coverages from Clark.

? Coordinator Report (20 min) Kristina Kittelson
Refer to her printed report. We should have over 500 members, not 287. March is our membership drive. She still needs a summary report from the TdB. Net $12,233 from this event. Lots of traffic on FB page. Scott requested chapter committee chairs to create by end of month a summary of the years accomplishments and what's planned for the coming year. Statement of volunteer hours is important too - Nov 25th due date to Kristina. Please email Kristina information about meetings and events as they are finalized. Each chapter should do a March membership drive and have a featured ride. She has sponsorship web pages for each chapter.

New Business
? Recognize proposal of Michael Vaughn as Local Committee Chairperson and new board member representing the Delta Area Mtn Bikers chapter. (Scott) tabled, Michael not present
? Note new DAMB Chapter committee roster - Tim, Sven, Jason Love, Michael, Ace
? Note new Uncompahgre Chapter committee roster (Renata) Rusty, Elie Malloy, Donnie Watson, Lynn Whipple, Laurie, Bill Harris. Laurie moved that Renata have approval by the Board to be a signor on our bank account. Stephen seconded the motion and all approved.
? Consider proposal of Rusty Wouters for membership on Board of Directors (Scott). Stephen made a motion to add Rusty to the Board and Bill seconded it. All approved.
? GVC Chapter request for board consideration;
o Fruita trails project chapter commitment & matching funds (John Howe - 10 min tot)
? John identifies Wrangler Ext, Mack Ridge new Route, Steve's Reroute project in chapter from 2004 RMP. This is around 10 miles that need assessments.
? Chapter initially operated under impression that BLM evals were complete
? They met with the City of Fruita and City approved $10K to help with surveys
? local chapter added $5K, but goal is $20-25K
? Clark made a motion that COPMOBA's general fund provide funds in matching amount of business contributions up to $5K cap. Also contingent upon total funding need. Paul seconded the motion. All voted in favor.
? Uncompahgre Chapter request for board consideration; (Laurie - 15 min tot)
o Montrose-Nucla-Cahone transmission line upgrade - COPMOBA response Steven Barnes will coordinate with Bill Harris to review the EA and comment with a letter.
o Laurie was asked to send the Board a copy of the recent Montrose area trail plan.
o Unc Chapter requests grant prep fee to be covered by general fund. $2,800 is the amount paid to Sparrow Consulting for planning grant. Dan made a motion that the Board approve this grant writing cost be paid for by general funds. Stephen 2nd the motion and all voted in favor.
? Sales for Trails Program
o Review status; program format, materials currently avail, implementation method(s)
o ID necessary steps to improve outreach & assign responsibilities to execute
? Kristina talked about the Sales for Trails program, & online enrollment page. She has a store flyer and sticker. Concept is a discretionary add-on 1% to a sales transaction. Add'l formats also in effect; Copper Club does a discretionary $1/beer for trails promotion. Quarterly disbursement from businesses, with 1 month leeway. These funds are not a business donation. It does not count towards membership. Customers are paying the funds.
? The in-store implementation seems to be the primary challenge. Create a default tax entry as "Tax & COPMOBA 1%" or similar. We need to provide the step-by-step process to the merchants. Scott asked all of us to go to the webpage about this and take a packet to all businesses. Scott will generate a bulleted list of general system process in a business; completed in 1 week. This is not limited to bike businesses. Get on the agenda to our chamber of commerce to present the program.
? Update RE recent State of CO activities:
o Trails initiatives: Colo The Beautiful and "16 Trails in 2016" project - Raise awareness of states $100M to trails commitment over several years. GOCO page has information. Connectivity and youth in outdoor recreation.
o CO Outdoor Recreation Industry Office - Luis Benitez
o Statewide trail mapping and focus on outdoor recreation
? Consider coordinator role; expand, move to full time for FY/CY 2016 - Tasks expansion: working with Clark on finances, branding, communications, sales for trails, TdB organization, grant administration. We will discuss this via emails until our January retreat. Review current funding status in light of supporting this, considering possibility of failing to obtain grant funding. KK is interested and most likely available for full time commitment, start date flexible.
? Review & record status of all grants, both active and submitted applications - tabled
? Branding discussion; chapter logos, website look, promo items, etc (Kristina - 10 min) - Kristina will meet with Stephen before the next meeting, and present proposals for branding direction at Jan board meeting.
? Schedule next meeting date - Jan timeframe; venue ideas - Gateway, CB. Scott wants to know the block-out dates in January. All board members provide unavailable dates to KK by this coming week and we'll create a poll for meeting date.
? Floor open for discussion -
o Rusty and Bill will look into Google Group or similar forum for Board communication. Rusty will provide a recommendation to board by the end of the year.
o GVC chapter has chosen to donate $1K towards the Pro Cycling Challenge public commitment. Kris asked for the Board to match $1K of general fund money with the contingency of the other donors matching. Stephen 2nds. 1 in favor, all other opposed.
o Bill Lindler emphasizes the benefits of a major trail system (not contiguous trail, but virtual trail linking riding areas). Advocacy of mountain biking, not just trails, and how do we brand the western slope? Colorado Adrenaline Trail concept.
o We need to have regular meetings every other month on the same night like 2nd Monday of each month. Will establish a schedule at Jan meeting.

DAMBikers (Chris Davis) – Focus on Smith Mtn to develop non-motorized ST and more moderate riding. Waiting for TMP for GGNCA. They recently met with Edd Franz in Dec. They will focus on fund raising and will have their meeting in Feb. They will work on the County Line Trails (new singletrack). Lower Sawmill Mesa – SRMA in Dominguez Canyon. Uncompahgre Trail Bash (July 11-12) will be led by Ace Brown. Need to follow-up on Region 10 economic development (tourism).

Grand Valley Canyons (Kris Quick read more or view full articleCox) – New trails on Grand Mesa and 3 Sisters in 2014. 2015 Plans: Mesa Top Trail needs a little more linkage trail work and then Grand Opening bash is being planned. Kokopelli Trail - Wrangler extension may need more NEPA or realignment work. Steve Loop is flagged and 2 trails off of Front Side/Mack Ridge. VOC rock work needed. March 28 VOC rock work training. Lunch Loops – 3 Sisters trail work (April 11?), Bookends plan this year and build 2016, North Fruita Desert – Sarlaac Extension to tie into the Edge, drainage by Joe’s Ridge, Gunnison Bluffs – subgroup to work on non-motorized trail with 2015 planning. March 26 planning meeting to get work days on the calendar. Have Trail Stewards identify problem areas that need maintenance. Next meeting (Mar 11) is an open house that will include CMU Outdoor Program. They have equipment for rent. We want to have display maps. Do we want to approve money spent for education on producing consistent maps for our riding areas for presentation purposes? Kristina will talk with John Hodge about what it would cost to develop these kinds of maps. We will all get maps to Kristina for our areas. Clean Canteen cups for $4 (Steve). Sell donated beer for $15 and split proceeds between COPMOBA and Outdoor Program.

RAT (Rod Fitzhugh) – Long Term vision is for 50 miles of sustainable trails and included Ridgway State Park, Fisher Canyon, McKenzie Butte, Mt. Baldy. Bill, Steve, Sara, Rod, John Hurlbert were nominated to be on committee. Rod moved for approval, Chris Muhr seconded and all approved. VOC June 27-28 (80 people), SWCC for 8 weeks, AmeriCorps possibly. Waiting to hear about their $200K grant. Scott V is $1,000 per week for supervision on BLM property. They spent $7K on grant writing. March 21 fundraising event at the Sherbino (Brian and Steve) with beer, music. Sept 12 Ridgway Fall Festival. Bill Lindler gave a ppt presentation about their activities and vision.

Uncompahgre (Laurie Brandt) – The Unc Chapter voted on Laurie as chairperson, Ali Plantz, Dan Arnold, Garry Baker, Renata, Bill Harris, and Donnie Watson. Chris Muhr made motion, Kris Cox seconded and all approved. Garry Baker is the Trail Planning Subcommittee lead and Renata Raziano is the Fund Raising Subcommittee leas. Chapter rep’s met with Julie Jackson (BLM) and she would like an MOU for our 5-year trail plan. The Trail Planning Committee has identified 5 areas for concentrated, stacked loop trail systems on BLM land plus those on City of Montrose land: 1.) Spring Canyon/Buzzard Gulch; 2.) Linscott Canyon/Hwy 90; 3.) Dry Creek/Tabeguache Trail; 4.) GGNCA/Sidewinder; 5.) Jones Canyon/West Black Canyon; and 6.) River Bottom Park bike park and Cerro Summit (City lands). See printed handout for more details. Uncompahgre Bash July 11-12 lead by Ace Brown of DAMB. We also want to do a spring ride/event in conjunction with DAMB on Sidewinder. Our first fund raiser is Jan 29th at 2 Rascals Brewery and we are showing the movie “Seasons” along with a ppt of our trails vision. There will be a silent auction and it is a tap night for fund raising.

West End (Paul Koski) – West End Bike Alliance (WEBA) had 11 people at the recent meeting. 15 paid members including 2 San Miguel County commissioners. They discuss becoming a COPMOBA chapter. Paul posts on MTB project using Global Mapper (Tony Adkins). Paradox Trail, Y11, Red Canyon loop are in MTB project. 20 Year anniversary of Paradox Trail to be centered at the ball fields in Uravan. Timed Hillclimb up John Brown canyon. Julie Jackson (BLM) wants an MOU for maintenance. Paradox Trail re-route will likely get approval this year. Two huts area planned for the San Juan Huts system along Paradox Trail. Glencoe Bench is main focus for trail maintenance. Paul applied for CDOT bike map trail editor for his area. Must apply through a government agency. West End Tour was discussed as an event to bring recognition to the Paradox Trail.

Coordinator Update (Kristina Kittelson) – See her separate notes. We have 185 members, including businesses. KK will send info to us the agenda of Colorado Bicycle Summit. MOG Fest April (April 25), which is same weekend as Fat Tire Festival (23-26). This conflicts with pancake breakfast. We need to be at both. Website – created by Thin Air. KK wants a Word Press website, but she’s working with Mark to update our site. Featured ride for each chapter.

Treasurer Report (Clark Reeves) – We spent $13K more than we took in. Trail construction cost us $34,391, which is 45% of total. See expense report provided by Clark. Clark needs a budget from each chapter. Discussion about how funds are allocated for GJ projects. Just under $40K in unrestricted funds. Steve moved that we keep $1,000 in PayPal, Rod seconded, all approved. Scott asked Clark to put together a format for accounting for the 10% overhead sent to all chapters by the end of the month.

Agenda Items

Membership Management – see handout produced by the committee.
Proposed items:

Unanimously approved paying for Little Green Light for member management.

Unanimously approved membership season starting in March with a party.

Approved. Scott wants a quote for printing costs. We also voted to have a generic business card for Board members. QR code donation on back.

Business Members. Levels: $250 member, $500 member gets small logo on trailer, $1,000 member gets larger logo on trailer, $2,500 member gets large logo and logo on sponsor board at events, and $________ other. Approved.

How are donors recognized? How about in-kind donations? Do they want recognized? KK will come up with list of ideas for donors vs. members by March 1st.

1% for Trails – list of business on website and door sticker. We agreed it should not be tied to business membership.

Membership and sponsorship are not the same. Sponsorship is for an event and does not indicate membership. Grants are neither membership not sponsorship. Let’s list grants from various sources on our website, like REI and Colorado Parks & Wildlife.

1% for Trails – see handout

Add statement that no business membership is included in participation of program.

Both artwork will be improved for visibility by March 1st.

Stephen suggested putting a 1% logo next to the participating business members.

An agreement form should be signed by business and rep. of COPMOBA.

Scott will do a write-up on the procedures for implementing the program.

What about non-retail businesses? Add to next meeting.

Website – our website needs a new look and better platform. It needs to highlight our chapters, events, meetings, etc. We want people to donate and get involved! Need more trail resource information and more complete maps. Connect email, FB and website better. KK needs to know from each chapter what we want on our page. We are to review and get back to her in a week.

2015 Tour de Bloom – $650 cost to participants ($xxx cost guests and $yyy staff) with cap of 28-30 riders. All approved. Whit Smith (decisions, leadership), Jim Ellis, Russ Folger (lead rider), Laurie B, Rod, Jim Maggio, Dan Antonelli are all available to be involved this year. Bryce can work with Bill to do event tasks. Marketing needed are poster (Nattana) and other social media and website. Steve will help KK with marketing. Pat Page will throw a kickoff party and band, $2,000 to fund 4 scholarships to build trails, and $1,000 entry. Chris Muhr and Jen will help with collecting donations.

Bylaws – Rod will provide language to allow local committees to make decisions electronically. Also, strike “map coordinator” out of the bylaws. Address needs to be changed from Amy’s. Clark is the registered agent he can be the physical address with the state and in the bylaws. Paperwork will need to be filed with the State. Two typos indicated by KK. Local committee members need to be COPMOBA members. We will approve via email after Rod completes changes within a week.

Nomination of Officers – Scott would like us to form a 3-person finance committee of board members to be financial oversight of COPMOBA. Clark will talk with Colleen about this. Laurie will talk with Daniel Arnold about Dalby-Wendland reviewing our books. All current officers were re-elected unanimously.

Coordinator as voting board member was not approved. The board should be separate from a paid staff.

Organizational Interface – This is to organize email threads and for storing documents so they are easily accessible. Bill Lindler, KK and Scott will work on this together. They will also address the remote meetings.

Information Sharing amongst Chapters – Chapter resource toolkit. How to get trails built, how to work with land managers, getting grants, etc. KK will make a list of sections in this folder. City of Fruita previously offered office space. Membership/outreach, fund raising/events, trail planning.

Adjourned at 5:30. Next meeting for some time in week of April 6 - KK to create doodle poll.Read Less

DAMBikers (Chris Davis) – Smith Mtn is main effort. A new TMP is needed before new trails are developed (Edd Franz is BLM rep). Start process end of next year, followed by at least 1 year. Region 10 Economic Coordinator and City Manager are on board. Greg Mazu has a rough trail plan for the area. County Line trails (USFS) are in the works. Chris will follow up with USFS. They will produce maps and other docs to present to Quick read more or view full articleBOCC.

Grand Valley Canyons (Kris Cox) – Goal is to create trail project prelim plans in anticipation of the RMP release. They need to think about new routes and get them GPS’d and on maps. Two trails are approved for McGinnis NCA (2004 plan), which will be their focus for 2015. They recently did work on 18 Road erosion and new signs. Lunch Loops maintenance has been a focus. 3 Sisters trails to start in 2015. Bookend property has been purchased and trail study is started with possible trail building in 2015. Maintenance and kiosk on Palisade Rim. Mesa Top Trail is 99% complete and a Grand Opening ceremony in 2015. GVTA – Hwy 141 connector, Pollock Canyon extensions (non-bike), and Old Spanish Trail (near Whitewater).

RAT (Rod Fitzhugh) – They have money coming from the town of Ridgway ($5,000) and $60K in-kind support from Ouray County. They've submitted for $200K grant. Their work in 2015 is dependent on whether grants come in. They are pursuing an additional grant for $75K to hire SWCC for closure/rehab trail work by Dec 16th. Rod asked for Board to support the cost of grant application (est. $2,500-3,500) pending available funds from chapter. Motion by Chris Muhr and seconded by Kris Cox, unanimous approval. Sara B. to be in National Bicycling Hall of Fame. We should recognize her on our web page - agreed.

Uncompahgre (Laurie Brandt) – For Cerro Summit, we are partnering with the City of Montrose for a GOCO grant for Youth Corps for 2 weeks next year. A Sept work day built 1.2 miles of trail in Buzzard Gulch with about 35 volunteers. We recently hired Scott Vanderplaats to flag/GPS 3 miles of two connector trails in Spring Canyon to connect Lower Spring Cr Trail with Spring Canyon trail. We now have Trail Planning and Events/Fundraising subcommittees. We are working on trail plans and developing our mission for the future. County and City meetings are scheduled regarding economic value of trails and their involvement with our group.

West End (Paul Koski) – Oct 2nd meeting with BLM was positive and the Paradox Trail re-route is moving forward. Telluride Foundation grant application was submitted. 2015 is the 20th anniversary of the Paradox Trail. He is working on the cycling club to work towards a full COPMOBA Chapter. Glencoe Bench is his focus next year. Paul will approach our new County Commissioner, Glen Davis, so that he is aware of recreational opportunities in the West End.

Treasurer Report (Scott Winans for Clark) – Scott wanted to have Clark re-format the report so that it has clearer summaries, especially for each Chapter. He asked each Chapter to look closely at their accounting and discuss with Clark any corrections. Scott will work with Clark to have revised financials available for upcoming board meeting.

Agenda Items

Coordinator position review

Approve mileage reimbursement rate for Coordinator: This was discussed via email and we are all in agreement this needs to be done. Ranges from .25 to .32 per mile have been discussed. Rod pays staff .565 cents per mile, and feels one can’t offer less than .32 cents per mile with gas prices and use over the lifetime of the car. Bill gets .56 per mile. Rod then suggests a yearly cap. Chris suggests mileage upon approval of president. All agreed that it is hard to say how much travel she will do at this point. Scott suggested that this be a line item in budget. Rod offered that 200 miles per month is reasonable, once a month visiting chapter. Rod made the motion to resolve to budge in 2015 budget 200 miles per month for a total 2400 at rate of $0.35/mi for all reasonable COPMOBA business including chapter meetings, work days events, etc., and place with president authority to expand that if needed without going back to board, and require a monthly travel log submission and review. Paul second. No oppose. Rod also made the motion that this would apply to the rest of 2014. Chris second. No oppose.

Job Responsibilities: Scott suggested that outreach to all chapters is a major component and is different from what Amy was doing as when she started her job there was only GJ Chapter. He would like to see coordinator at major events and an annual chapter meeting. She need to identify challenges in membership management, outreach, and focus on fundraising management. It was relayed that a number of chapters are using grant writes and it would be useful for her to be able to help with this. Amy did some of this but only focused on GJ Chapter. Rod agrees - just missed a Telluride grant as they didn't have time to put resources to write it. He has had trouble with this in the past and thinks its important to have data readily accessible to put in grants. He also suggests we set priority for Kristina, what comes first. Rod thinks it should be membership management as it has been static for so long. Rod would look to Kristina to come with ideas of what she should focus on and present them to board, and let the board decide what to do. Scott summarized saying that one, we should look at Coordinator as a communication conduit and she should develop ways to share that information and two, work to coalesce the information that we are going to use often, for example what are our volunteer hours, miles of trail built for example. For Kristina, the board would like her to put together what should be on list. Announcements of activities should come from Kristina to the Chapters - IMBA TCC visit for example. To review, coordinator at chapter meetings once per year at minimum, if not twice. Rod relayed membership development, marketing organization, and developing brand and helping to coordinate events such as RAT Fest, MOG. Scott and Kris both agreed calendar management is important and we should set a deadline for getting the events posted. Scott also relayed that Kristina should develop a repository of imagery such as graphics, logos, trail work pictures. In terms of specific activities, Kristina is a part-time employee, and we need to prioritize. Kristina is to review this and present to board.

Chapter Funding

Fundraising at Chapter level & overhead set-aside

Annual dispersion to Chapters- in past, board has provided $1000 per year to each chapter. How do we see this for the coming calendar year? Chris suggests available upon request. Business sponsors and membership goes to general fund. A donation can be earmarked for a specific chapter. Scott feels that money should go to the organization. Rod relayed that donors in Ridgway want that money to stay local and they want to see their trials to be developed. They know Rod and Sarah but don’t know people in GJ. Chris M relayed that the money should underwrite trail development projects in those area or earmark money for specific projects. Rod thinks there is a middle ground - we had this discussion at the last board meeting. Every contribution gets a 10% overhead taken off. Bill says if the city of Ridgway gives money, they expect the money to go to Ridgway. Bylaws are clear that chapters can't have their own bank account, and all money goes into general fund. Bylaws also make clear that local chapters can use funds locally only to the extent permitted by the COPMOBA Board. The 10% needs to be taken off the front. Chris says this money that is earmarked for a chapter needs to go into an encumbered fund. Rod says this should also apply to earned income from events, jerseys, hats, etc. Rod moves that the all income generated by local chapter, whether generated by donations, events, fundraising (not memberships), shall be deposited in COPMOBA bank account and 10% will be allocated to the general fund and remaining 90% allocated to for use by the local chapter and spent by the local chapter within the limits of the bylaws, articles of incorporation, and direction of the board and that such allocations shall be recorded in the company books as soon as they are made on an ongoing basis. This does not apply to grant funds received by local chapters. Implementation date based upon feedback from Treasurer to be resolved by Nov 30, 2014.

Board Members

Area/Chapter representation of board members (balance numbers)- Scott presents that we should be aware of board member numbers from the various chapters, and consider if we need to, and how to, best balance representation on the board. Chris M stated that he has not seen unfairness with mixed board representation and that we should not turn away somebody that brings energy and expertise. Dan mentioned that it may be unbalanced in terms of the time taken at a board meeting and we would need to be mindful of that. All agreed that if interested individuals in other areas want to be considered, there is no formal cap on the number of board members.

Term limits – tabled.

Consider proposal of Steve Barnes for RAT chapter representation: Rod presented Steve and his background. Steve also shared his involvement with trail building, particularly at Phil’s World. Chris M made motion to add Steve to the board, Dan seconded. No oppose.

2015 Tour de Bloom: implementation plan, promotion plan, schedule – Kristina and Scott will organize. Name change needed. Rod circulated an email memo summarizing important planning issues and significant dates and deadlines pertinent to the event. A copy is attached to these minutes.

Membership

Scott relayed that we need to create committee to review & recommend members management processes and at the next meeting specific recommendations. Chris M, Kris Cox volunteered to be on committee in coordination with Coordinator, and will on or before next board meeting, make recommendations for membership management processes, software, timeframes, automatic payments, etc, for board consideration.

1% for Trails – finish program process for 2015 application by end of year – tabled.

End of season party at Delta? Chris Davis will check with Chapter and have decision in a week.

Set next meeting date (consider set schedule, e.g., First Monday of the month). Kristina will set up Doodle Poll for January retreat to be one full day on weekend. Places suggested include a house in Telluride, Chipeta Sun Lodge, and the Gunnison River Farms, lodge, kitchen.

Approve Last Meeting’s Minutes – not available. We will need to approve these by email.

Coordinator’s Report – Amy. 30+ members joined at MOG Fest and another 25+ joined/renewed at 25th Anniversary party. Now we have 190 members, which is more than we’ve had in a long time. We also have new business members. The computer crashed again. Graphics have been saved. The newsletter will go out next Thursday. She needs our info by Wed, 8/6. Phone, printer and tablet are COPMOBA’s. She has a lot of stuff in her house (files, hats, shirts, signs), approx. 15 boxes, etc. Quick read more or view full articleAugust 8th is her last day. She still needs to send membership packets out to those who joined in June. MOG and Fat Tire Festival will be on the same weekend in 2015.

Discussion of New Coordinator – Amy’s comments: once the GJ chapter started, her tasks changed. The Coordinator services all chapters. They should live in GJ due to big events, parties, pancake breakfast, banking, etc. The newsletter doesn’t take a lot of time, but it should be more in depth. Needs more content. Membership and answering emails and calls takes time. They need to know the trails and be an avid mountain biker. They should know the history of our organization, how we work with the BLM, basic payroll/tax book-keeping, assistance agreements with the BLM (website passwords). The Coordinator should spend regular time with each chapter chairperson. July 2016 is important date for assistance agreement. Clark will meet with the local BLM staff to make sure we are up to date. The transition from Bill to Amy got messed up with the draw of $50K at one time. Scott asked Amy for a summary of her job description and what events she is involved with and who the contact names/numbers are. She works 20 hours per week at $12/hour. This is a full time job in the Spring and part-time from Nov to end of Feb. An average of 30 hours per week is her guess as to the time it takes. Formal job evaluation needed with the full board periodically and with the President regularly.

Financial Report (Clark) Bank account has $130K as of June 30th, but a good portion is restricted. He will do complete report soon.

TdB 2015 Planning (Bryce P. and Rod F.)

Most pressing need is the 5 year permit. Bryce would like to see someone take over the lead. New blood can energize the event.

We need to submit a request for a 2015 trip date soon, but we may not get confirmation until Jan/Feb.

A timeline document was recommended as a framework. Also, include tips and details for what makes the event run smoothly. Sept 1st – deadline for timeline document. Planning needs to start 2-4 months sooner. The quality of the experience should be at 28 paying riders, not over 30. Need a minimum of 4-5 strong riding guides for 28 riders. We need a good mechanic and medical support.

We should find a local GJ person who can transition into administrator of the event. Amy suggested that the new Coordinator position could include the TdB management. There are a lot of cross-over tasks like billing, membership, coordination, plus they get the perk of getting to ride the trail.

Worldwide Expeditions may not want to do this in 2015. Bryce and Rod will call Steve and ask of their commitment.

A strong ride leader is important, such as Russ this year.

The event needs to be promoted, perhaps professionally. Google search hits needs to find the TdB better. TV coverage could help. Marketing the amenities would help a lot to separate it from the Hermosa tour. We need to better cover the event on our website.

West End Update – (Paul)

Paradox Trail – signage is good and some groups have been through.

Paradox Trail re-route – He got a $4,500 pledge from local grant. Paul is seeking an additional Telluride Foundation grant for $5,000. Amy Sharp has come up with proposal.

WEBA – Road and mtn bike group in west end. Montrose County will include GIS mapping. They want to have more events.

A West End chapter is desired. They have 4 members.

Discussion of having the Wild West End Tour again. This could be the Coordinator’s responsibility and include a paid promoter.

Sneffels/RAT Update – (Rod)

RAT Fest – Sept 20th at Town Park. 5-6 Brewers there as beer festival. No trail work day or official rides that day. Focus on fund raising with beer and auction. No objections to approval of $25 fee.

Grant application with Amy Sharp ($3,500 fee) for $200K. They need $12K for matching funds to support the application. Scott suggested to underwrite the $12K amount to guarantee the amount is met. This would build a total of about 18 more miles, restrooms, parking lots, and other improvements. There will be a total of 24 miles, if built out as designed.

6 miles of trail are built so far. 2 miles from last summer. Connector trail is now open to the State Park. Singletrack from Hwy 50 to CR 10 will be complete soon. Construction will continue into the fall due to State Park funds ($75K). Aug 7 meeting to discuss construction schedule and volunteer days. Work is down to Steve Barns (IMBA trail builder), Rod and Gordon.

Uncompaghgre/Montrose Update - (Laurie)

Buzzard Gulch – work days 9/27-28 weekend with Scott Vanderplaats.

Cerro Summit – work day 8/10. 2 miles constructed so far. WCCC spent 4 days building trails. Laurie will send map of current trails to board.

Delta/ DAM Update/ Vision and Needs – (Chris Davis)

They have 5 committee members who are very interested in learning the process of trail advocacy. There are about 30+ people involved in their club, FB page, and rides. Chris has an email list.

Smith Mtn is the main area of interest for their chapter. Greg Mazu designed a 30 mile stacked loop system of non-motorized trails 3-4 years ago. There is a lot of County-wide support for this project.

Lower Sawmill Mesa (Dominguez-Escalante) – Another area where trails were approved.

Grand Valley Canyons/ GJ Update (Kris Cox)

GJ Off-road

141 Connector – physical feature to limit use, but allow 2 track use.

Pollock Bench Extension – Quiet users. 3 arches.

GVTA – Trail development process. Kris handed this out for all of our projects.

Mesa Top – 15 people last weekend. ¾ mile completed. Almost done! 8/9-10 weekend for more trail work (thanks Dan!);

BLM Maintenance – WCCC will be available for trail work (18 Road) – 9/13 and 10/13; Old Spanish Trail; 21 Road toad.

Comments are subject to administrator approval before becoming publicly visible.

Board Meeting Minutes January 11, 2014

December 2, 2014

1. Call to order at 10:10 am at Buckhorn Geotech, Montrose. Attendees: Scott, Clark, Rod, Amy, Laurie, and Kris
2. Didn’t approve minutes.
3. Election of officers for 2014
President – Scott Winans
VP - Chris Muhr
Treasurer – Clark Rieves
Secretary - Laurie Brandt
Laurie made 3 motions: all approved
- Job descriptions of officers
- Reach out to public for board members and officers (by Mar/Apr board meeting)
- Invite other members personally
4. Tour de Bloom – phone conference with Bryce Palo.
- Carrie Surber (BLM) is who we need to get dates and permit approved. Insurance (event rider) needs to be obtained. World Wide needs to get on board, too. Promotion of the event is next. The biggest hurdle is getting a date and both Bryce and Amy have been in touch with Carrie.
- Date - Weekend after Mother’s Day weekend as Th-Sun (May 15-18) Quick read more or view full articleis what he proposed to Carrie. We have a 5 year permit so all we need is an annual operational authorization.
- Pre-event fee ($5/rider/day) is approx. $500/yr and evidence of insurance (certificate). Someone needs to get Carrie to approve our permit dates so we can get going.
- Nattana has a format for the flyer and Amy sent her an email to ask about getting it updated.
- World Wide charged more last year for the low turnout. We have been charging $xxx typically. We need their logo to help with their promotion. Our price shouldn’t increase unless World Wide increases their price.
- Chris Muhr would be a good auctioneer this year.
- Scott will call Katie if we can’t get response on dates in a useful timeframe.
- Bryce emails flyer to past participants and posted on website. Send separate news flash to members and public. Bryce can send his notice to Rod and Amy.
- Sponsors – Rods gets items from shops in Ridgway and Ouray, Jen and Chris got items from GJ area. Look for swag in the Moab Area.
- Bryce is still the event coordinator.
- Pat Page has been a generous participant and he offered the pre-ride party at his house. He already gave Amy a donation in Dec. Rod will contact him about the party.
5. Board Business.
- Consideration of new members – see previous
- Board member term limits – Scott suggested that we have a policy of 3 to 4 year term limits. It allows for fresh face and new ideas. What is our value to the public? We will not make any limits at this time. Scott will write a policy page for preference for 3-5 year of service so that there is turnover/renewal. All in favor.
- What are our events? Tour de Bloom, MOG, Fat Tire Festival, RAT Festival, Trail building events, 25th year event. Scott suggested a 25th year party, possibly at Pat Page’s house, but he also wants to do a TDB kickoff event. We had approx. 200 people (Stray Grass band) at our 20th year event. Public place, summer/June, and get a paid promoter to do it for us. Kannah Brewery as a possible venue (9th St, stage, near Riverfront Trail). Paul made motion for 25th party, Kris 2nd it.
- Rod will follow up with event promoter in Ridgway. Clark will contact Snob Productions. Kris and Amy will pursue people they know. This information is due to Amy by the end of January.
- Questions for promoter – public place, 200-300 people, celebrates our 25 years of building/advocating for trails, beer, live music, kid-friendly?, June, afternoon/eve, community benefit, scrapbook for 20th year, slide show, organized ride, advocacy/history of building trails. Find out lead time and scope of costs for possible promoter.
- We need someone who can promote COPMOBA. Rod mentioned an event promoter in Ridgway who deals with other bike-related events. Local chapters have their own local events for local residents and TDB is for the entire organization. How do we reach more people for membership? We could pick one event to try an event promoter and see how it turns out.
- Scott made motion to contact promoters and get to Amy by end of Jan. Seconded by Kris. All in favor.
- Scott made motion that by end of Feb, we will commit to spend money with a promoter or do it ourselves. Paul seconded it. All in favor.
- Grant writing. Danika Gilbert RAT. Danikagilbert@gmail.com. GOCO grant. $1500-1800, but we missed the deadline. Once a database is established, it makes future grants easier. Colorado grant format. She is working on the Anschutz and NCCC grants for trail work. Danika needs our budget for the local project and for the organization. Scott asked for her to be put in touch with Amy so that she can do more grant writing for us. Deadline is Jan 15th for Danika’s proposal and Rod thinks we will know by the end of Jan.
- We need to improve the Access database (contact Noel to begin) so that chapter members can be extracted. Amy will give us a report at the end of the month on how to improve our database to get members by chapter.
- Two Bob trailers were approved in prior meeting and Scott needs to order them. Will be done no later than March.
- Amy needs to know # of miles and volunteer hours after each event at the chapter level.
6. Budget Items. Clark.
- $1,991 net income. $130,917 on hand. $93,138 is restricted. $37,780 free to spend.
- Tim’s trail funds available total just under $xxK. Time Machine is the next trail in process at 3-Sisters area.
- $2K is because of pause in payment of insurance to IMBA. We paid a short rider (Oct-Jan). We are OK until Mar 1st with our insurance rider. Liability insurance. Rod said it should cover officers, board members and agents. On public lands, we are covered by the BLM or FS.
- Scott proposed that we review the policy to ensure that we approve of the coverage that we will receive. Raise this topic in our subsequent two board meetings to maintain visibility. This is to know our exposure and if we need additional coverage.
- Clark will finalize the financial statements for us to review items reserved/earmarked to see if they are still relevant. If there is still money available in grants for tools, signage, food, etc. then we should use that money for those items or release for general budget if applicable.
- Amy indicated that REI is open to having us use the money elsewhere in some instances.
- If funds are restricted, Clark was asked to highlight them so that we can review the grants.
- Paul made the motion that each chapter gets $1,000 for discretionary spending pending the outcome of the final financial statement. Rod seconded the motion. All in favor.
- Rod is looking for a tool trailer for the Ridgway chapter. Good used, donated, or new.
7. West End. Paul
- Log jam of funds to get things moving. $8800 grant to Montrose West End Rec. for reroute. Funds are there. Arch field work is done for the whole reroute. Waiting on Check from state to finish reports.
- Signage on Paradox Trail is still up and looking good.
- Would like to see a KML file for GPS Trace of the Paradox Trail on COPMOBA webpage. $800 in house Money (MWR) for printing Maps.
- 45 hours volunteer hours for this year. Planning on trail maintenance for brush clearing on Paradox Trail. Do a Y-11 trail ride/maintenance day.
- Kiosk at the Naturita Visitor Center and at Uravan.
- Burn Canyon 30 miles of Single Track / Moto proposed. Not to public comment yet.
- Thunder Trails area is being mitigated and 8 miles of single track/moto, creating camp grounds in planning process through Forest Service.
8. Ridgway. Rod.
- RAT adopted Town Park for maintenance, weeds, etc. Weaver Park. They will have two work
days, one in spring and one in summer.
- They lost their Youth Corps week due to government shutdown. Both weeks in May. Danika
thinks she can get funding for 8 full weeks.
- They will have two more volunteer weekends, independent of YC. Aug/Sep.
- McKenszie Butte and Fisher Canyon are two areas for possible trails.
- Grants – possibly approach Amy Sharp to help with BLM process. Anika Gilbert and GOCO grant.
- RAT Fest – June 7-8
- Winter Fund Raiser soon – Brian Scranton will find a band for the Sherbino.
- Started with $6,271, $5K REI grant. $1K from Ridgway. $554 Sherbino event. $3,400, net $2,200 from RAT Fest
- Town will give them $2,500 for 2014.
- Rod requested that he gets a list of Ridgway area members, needed for grants.
- He has several people who could use crew leader training.
- 676 hours trail building volunteer hours.
9. Uncompahgre. Laurie.
- 2013 was a record-breaking year for the chapter. 88 volunteers donated 472 hours for trail building and 5 miles of new trail was built.
- Buzzard Gulch – We had 3 trail work days in the spring and now the trail system is officially recognized and mapped.
- Cerro Summit – $4,500 was raised to fund the initial phase of the project. About 2 miles of trails were built. The City of Montrose grant writer applied for a State Trails Grant.
- Fall Fund Raising Event at 2 Rascals Oct 24th – Showed Klunkerz movie and it was well attended. Tap fee plus donated items generated $748 donations. 2 Rascals, Colorado Boy, Primal Wear, Mtn Khakis and Cascade Bicycles were big sponsors.
10. Grand Valley Canyons. Kris.
- Dan has volunteer hours on FS land. Amy has hours for BLM also.
- Started year with Mojo. Completed/opened in March.
- Work days were limited for Monday night maintenance due to rain. Mesa Top Trail was good. One maintenance day on Palisade Trail.
- 1 meeting/month during season. 5-35 people attending. Lots of RMP volunteer hours.
- They are down one on their committee. John Howe was suggested as a replacement.
- Nordic Council wanted to know if warming hut at Skyway can be used by another group in the summer. Dan looked into it, but not feasible this year since it needs an outfitter’s permit.
- Mesa Land Trust will talk about their projects at the next chapter meeting.
- 3 Sisters work days, Dan has lots of FS trail days on Grand Mesa, Monument Rd trails
- Long range – North Fruita desert, 40+ people attended scoping meeting
- Ready to build - Kokopelli NCA , County Line to Skyway, Mesa Top, Flowing Park, Palisade
- F-Town Geardown – needs to pay us for beer sales. Kris to follow up with this.
11. Coordinator Update.
- Membership/chapter affiliation – she will work on database to extract this info and let us know what she finds by the end of the month.
- 150 members, all types – her efforts to get more members with mailings don’t work well
- Amy would like to put together a better letter for explaining what we do
- A pie chart of our expenses ($45k) would be helpful for members to see where organizational funding goes. Clark will develop some visual representation of our finances.
- Merchandise – she ordered wool socks and showed an example. We have no jerseys left, but we do have hoodies. Primal Wear (John “Hutch” Hutchinson) wants to help us do a jersey. Amy will look into minimums for jersey orders. Rod wants a unique jersey for TDB with its own design and only 3 or so made. He will look into a design.
- Website review – Problems keeping it updated. The chapters need to send their most current info to Amy on a regular basis. Scott would like to see a GPS downloadable file for the big three trails. Mike Steele or Dan has the one for Koko trail. Paul will get the file for Paradox trail. Scott will get the 1% for Trails write-up for the website.
12. Fundraisers.
- Rockslide Fundraiser. Feb 2nd event, 12-4. Small beer festival with 7 breweries. $10 fee for tastings that we will get the proceeds from. We need a couple of representatives of COPMOBA there. We need to promote this. Our logo will be on their flyer.
- MOG/Bike Swap – April 19.
- Fruita Fat Tire Festival pancake breakfast/scavenger hunt – April 26
- TDB – already discussed
- TDG – Dan and Rod want it to happen, but Rod can’t take the lead. Maybe the events coordinator can make it happen. Perhaps 2015?
- Ride and BBQ – 25th Anniversary (see previous discussion)
- Kannah Creek – First Monday is keg day when they give proceeds to local non-profit (Kris)
13. 1% for Trails.
- Scott read his description of this program.
- When a company gets to $500 in donations, they would become a $500 COPMOBA business member for the balance of the year.
- We would approach businesses face-to-face to get business participants.
- A window sticker would be in shop window.
- Scott to send program description to board members this week.
14. Trails 2000.
- Kurt was frustrated with Trails 2000 in Durango. We recommend that he gets involved with their organization. Do trails days and get on the board.
15. Other items.
16. Next meeting. Monday, March 10 at 6 pm at Buckhorn Geotech.
17. Meeting adjourned at 3:52 pm. Read Less

Comments are subject to administrator approval before becoming publicly visible.

Board Meeting Minutes - March 10, 2014

March 17, 2014

COPMOBA March Board Meeting minutes 03-10-2014
Attendees: Scott W, Laurie B, Dan A, Bill L, Kris K., Chris M., Clark R., Rod F., Amy A.
Location - Buckhorn Geotech, Montrose. Call to Order at 6:20 PMUncompahgre Chapter Report: Meeting Feb 12th- 19 attendees, atypically large number.
1% for trails program discussed - lots of Montrose interest. Laurie needs paperwork / implementation steps to give to interested parties. Chris Muhr proposed create stickers and posters for 1% for trails budget of $250. Laurie B seconded. Passed 7-0. Kris C’s son will share a draft design about March 10, 2014.
Buzzard Gulch trail work April 26th, Cerro Summit June 7th. Two Rascal’s party after both events. June 22nd Bicycle Tour of Colorado camping in Montrose. Considering hosting beer garden- police cost is an issue. Unc. Trail Bash- Late June: Tim Gallegos & Chris Davis of Tread adventures will plan event.
Aside: Quick read more or view full articlePhone conference format for meetings discussed. Bill proposes using Web-X. Meetings would be recorded, file sharing capability. Training needs would be minimal. Bill will look into costs of various platforms. Skype also. Decide on a date for trial meeting. Organization Insurance Review: Rich Engelhart of Home Loan spoke with Chris M. IMBA can obtain insurance policy through K&K at rate similar to prior years. Claim history for IMBA included 2 deaths in recent past with RJF. New K&K policy would not include product liability (also referred to as “Completed Operations” coverage – relating to injuries on trails designed/built by us). IMBA policy will be $500 roughly. Rod will speak with Rich again to get detail on both the IMBA and the stand alone policies. Stand alone policy offered through Secura was roughly $2600/year. Coverages of the two different policies are not clearly understood. Chris M. Moves to proceed with Rod’s recommendation after Rod’s further discussion with Rich, and to pay for the insurance this week (by Friday March 14th). Dan seconded. Passed 7-0.Grand Valley Chapter report: John Howe - new local chapter committee member. MLT made presentation on bookends- want to buy this year.
Directional signs for 18 road are installed- shops instructed to listen for feedback. Copmoba to direct Hilltop to concern areas. Singletrack Tr (Mazu) has been working on PBR.
GVTA-Dan proposes, Rod 2nds $100 membership in GVTA. Passed 8-0. GVTA wants to create a Trail Center, and is also working on communication methods for trails to be built. Discussion RE method in which COPMOBA participates with GVTA. Propose projects to take action on – create topics for which GVTA can serve a clearly defined purpose.
Bumper Stickers- Websticker.com is Bill L’s contact- they make high quality stickers, good history with them. Proposal to print the CO COPMOBA stickers – both member and non-member styles. Printing budget approved up to $300, discussed via email if over that value. Approval to pay Bryan Kox $100 for successful sticker design.
Workdays: March 15th- 18 road maint., Sarlacc April 13th maint, May 3&4 Sarlacc Campout. May 10th Pal Rim Maint., June 28&29 Turkey Flats maint; July 12th Mesa Top, July 16th Gunny evening, July 26 & Aug 9 Mesa Top, Sep 6 Turkey Flats, Sep 27 18 Road maint.RAT Chapter report: VOC work event May 10 & 11 - hopes for 80 volunteers. Need call for volunteers on website (already linked). 4 grants in works. Gordon R says Telluride foundation agrees to fund $5k possibly more in calendar year 2015. Hoping to hear from Anschutz by May 15- requested $10k - shoe in for $5k. Greg Mazu recommends speaking to Kirsten at State Parks – they have some ongoing trail plans of some sort. People for bikes - end of May. Wells Fargo $5k, end of June deadline for application. Pursuing Alpine Bank opportunity. SW Youth Corp lined up for early June, 2 weeks. Americorp coming for 8 weeks if we can fund supervision - need about $10k. This BLM supervision is required for work to proceed. $1K/week, full time, one person (Scott Vanderplatz BLM).
Fundraiser Saturday night 3/15 at Sherbino theater - beer from Colorado Boy, proceeds to RAT. Glenda the Blenda is disbanding and giving the bike blender to RAT.
Tool Trailer; possible DT contribution - Amy will follow up with Chip at DT regarding status of possible trailer donation.
Ed Hines – New Belgium Sales West Slope; Chris M moves to appoint Ed to RAT chapter committee, Bill 2nds, passes 7-0.
Chris M moves to use $2k of the general fund for supervision of SW Youth Corp - to be repaid with first funding rec’d. Kris 2nd. Passed 7-0West End Chapter report: Paul K not in attendance – he provided summary of activities prior to meeting, appended separately.Tour de Bloom: 6 entered to date. Application requested - thinks 4 in his party. Per Rod, Randy Acker is coming bringing his daughters. Whit Smith says 5 guys. Need at least 15 or price rises. Need application and insurance.25th Anniversary Celebration: Planning for June 14th at Edgewater in GHJ. Board prelim budgeted (prior mtg) $2500. Committee met with Edgwater rep to discuss. Edgewater will have facilities available (sound, porta-potties, etc – included in cost of event). Plan is to provide two beer coupons to COPMOBA members, and small food provision. Participants purchase further as needed at the event. Music options discussed, considering 4-8 PM. Kris is point of contact with Edgewater. Planning continues.Coordinator Report: Database has been upgraded. Assigned members to chapters. Thanks to Randy Miller for DB assistance. Discussed member subscription model at recent GV chapter meeting (ongoing payment plan) - Amy will pursue & report to board. Honey Stinger will become a member (part cash, part in kind). Amy is updating business membership guidelines. Roughly 130-140 members. Bill wants a list of expired members. Amy will work on automating business membership renewal notifications. Amy will ask Nattana about updated board member magnetic name tags. Discussion RE material donations (recurring discussion as to how to approach these). Plan to move ahead with documenting donations formally, establishing value, etc. RAT has a document which they’ve used for this purpose - Bill L will generalize their form and send it to Amy for distribution to all chapters. We’ll need to perform some trailing on a process to standardize.
Next meeting to be arranged via email & taken over Skype.
Meeting adjourned 9:15.Read Less